I cannot see any comments.

Frequently asked questions: Common problems accepting the editor's changes

Word crashes when I accept the changes.

When Word crashes or runs very slowly, this could be caused by the Reviewing Pane. Due to the number of changes and comments, there is a lot of content in the Revision Pane, which causes Word to run slowly and possibly crash.

The Reviewing Pane is the Pane on the left side of your screen that you can extend when you go to the Review tab.

Close this Reviewing Pane while you keep on working on your document.

If this does not solve your problem, please contact Scribbr via the chat or send an e-mail to info@scribbr.com.

I cannot see any redlining (changes).

Don’t panic! Sometimes you cannot see the changes straight away when you open the Word document, even though the changes of the editor are in there.

Step 1: Go to the ‘Review’ tab and select ‘All Markup’ in the drop down menu (Word 2019).

Step 2: Click on ‘Show Markup’ below ‘All Markup’ (Word 2019) and make sure all options are ticked.

• Word 2019
• Word 2013
• Word 2010
• Word 2007
• Word 2003
• Word for Mac 2011

Show Track Changes (Word 2019)

Show Track Changes (Word 2013)

Show Track Changes (Word 2010)

Show Track Changes (Word 2007)

Show Track Changes (Word 2003)

Show Track Changes (Word for Mac 2011)

I cannot make the red vertical lines on the left side disappear.

This red line is there because there are still changes in the document that need to be accepted (which can be minor changes like double spaces or a wrongly placed comma).

Step 1: Go to the Review tab and click on ‘Accept’ (Word 2019).

Step 2: Click on ‘Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking’.

• Word 2019
• Word 2013
• Word 2010
• Word 2007
• Word 2003

Accept All Changes (Word 2019)

Accept All Changes (Word 2013)

Accept all changes (Word 2010)

Accept All Changes (Word 2007)

Accept All Changes (Word 2003)

My text contains redundant changes.

You might come across redundant changes, where a word or punctuation mark is replaced by the same word or punctuation mark.

Changes like these occur during the routine editing process, so there’s no cause for concern. There are two common reasons you might see such changes:

• Our editors work in the “simple markup” view, so they can ensure they don’t introduce errors during the editing process. However, this means that editors sometimes delete a word and then retype it, and Word’s track changes will count this as an edit.
• This can also happen when editors use spell check or other advanced editing tools, which allow the editor to review multiple instances of a word at once. Tools like this enable us to deliver a consistent edit, but they sometimes result in “unnecessary” changes.

If you see redundant changes in your text, you can simply accept or reject them.