How to track edits in Word
Q: I collaborate with colleagues where we each maintain some Microsoft Word documents that we keep up to date with individual edits. Normally, it would show each edit and the name of the person who made the edits, but when I make changes it does not add my name, it just says “author” after I save it. Is there a way to make sure the document keeps track of my edits by name? I am using Word for the Mac.
A: For users of Word on a Windows computer, this information is set by what you have specified in the Options section of Word. To find it and edit it, click on File and then Options and look forPersonalize Your Copy of Office in the General section and make sure you have your name there. This is what Word will use to mark your edits.
Word for Windows will always embed this information, but Word for Apple has one more option that actually removes this data from documents when it is enabled.
Click on the Tool menu and select Protect Document. Look for a check box next to the words Remove personal information from this file on save and uncheck that option if you want Word to track your edits by name.
While we’re on this subject, you might want to consider what data Word is embedding in your documents, as there may be situations where you don’t want this happening, especially if you are sharing the document with others.
As I pointed out, Word for Mac has an easy on/off switch for this. But Word for Windows embeds this kind of data by default and you have to change your personal information inside of the application to hide it, or you can remove it in a document-by-document basis.
For instructions on how to do this, have a look at the article called How to Remove Metadata from Microsoft Word Files at tiny url.com/helplinewordmeta.