Hide Formatting Changes When Tracking Changes in Word

Many offices employ the Track Changes feature in MS Word.  It is a great feature when you are working on a “round trip” document.

For instance, suppose you are negotiating a settlement of some sort or attempting to put together a contract. First, you create your document and then you have to mail it to the other party who will read it and make suggested edits and changes to the document and send it back to you.

Most folks prefer that Track Changes not show any formatting changes in their documents.

There are a couple of ways you can try to resolve this issue.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

• Display  the Review tab of your Ribbon.
• Click on the Show Markup tool, where you will see a list of various items that Word can track and show in your document.
• Be sure that Formatting has been deselected.

Another method is:

1. Display the Review tab of your Ribbon.
2. In the Tracking group, click the down arrow under the Track Changes tool.
3. Click Change Tracking Options to display the dialog box.
4. Deselect the Track Formatting option.
5. Click OK.

Be aware, that these changes will stick, meaning that you only have to do this one time. Word will remember your choices and will not keep track of your formatting changes in future documents.