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How to Proofread Like a Pro Using Microsoft Word

I’m back with another tip of the week! In this week’s post we’ll look at the reviewing tools in Microsoft Word that can be extremely helpful for proofreading a translation or giving feedback on any other kind of document.

I’ll be using the first couple of paragraphs from a recent blog post that Elisabeth Willner wrote on the importance of translating culture in birth certificates to demonstrate how to use Word to review documents.

Below is a screenshot of the text (Note: I have edited the text to include mistakes).

OK, now that we have the text that needs editing in front of us, I’m going to walk you through the different features of the “Review” tab on the top bar.

The first is the “Markup” dropdown. Here is where you can find it:

And here is what you’ll see when you select the dropdown menu:

What do all of them do, you ask?

  1. Simple Markup: Word will show you where changes were made (with a line on the left side) and will show comments as thought bubbles on the right side of the page. To see the changes, either click on the line or comment bubble, or select “All Markup.”
  2. All Markup: This will show you everything. You’ll see deleted characters with lines through them, added characters, comments, format changes, and more.
  3. No Markup: Shows what the final text will look like, with all changes incorporated.
  4. Original: Shows the original text, as it was before the changes were brought.

I generally select “All Markup” when I’m proofreading or bringing changes to a proofread document since it is the most comprehensive. You can also select “Show Markup” under the “Markup” dropdown (see first screenshot from this section) to customize exactly what you would like to see.

Next, you’ll need to know how to track changes. You can access this under the “Review” tab (see screenshot below) or by using the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + Shift + E”.

Click on the little arrow to see the dropdown menu where you can toggle “Track Changes” on/off or “Lock Tracking.” If you turn on “Track Changes,” Word will record every change you make to the document. “Lock Tracking” allows you to password protect the document so that other users cannot turn off “Track Changes.”

If all you want to do is toggle “Track Changes” on/off, you can simply click on the image of the document and pencil.

Now, any changes you make will be tracked. The example below shows the tracked changes I made in “All Markup” view. The text underlined in blue is what I inserted, the crossed out text is what I deleted, and the note on the right shows that I bolded the text “Name order.”

With “Track Changes” set up, we can now move along to comments. The icons for comments are also found under the “Review” tab.

To insert a new comment you can either select “New Comment” or use the shortcut “Ctrl + Alt + M.” Then, just type in whatever comment or question you have about the text. In my example, I put in a comment saying that we need to find a source for one of the statements in the document.

So, now that we’ve tracked our changes, deleted some words, added other words, changed some of the formatting, and inserted a comment, how do we review the changes and either accept or reject them?

Well, just like everything else, you can find the “Changes” section under the “Review” tab. Here you can accept or reject changes, as well as scroll through them.

You can also right-click on the change directly in the document and then select whether or not you would like to accept or reject the insertion.

Same with format changes, if you right-click on them you can either accept or reject the change:

Finally, if you right-click on a comment you can either reply to a comment to get a conversation going, delete a comment, or mark the comment as done.

Once I accept all the changes (and in this case, I deleted the comment since I found the source), here’s what we have for our final version of the document:

That covers all the basics for reviewing in Word however I do want to mention a couple of other things, without going into too much detail.

  • Proofing: These tools will check for spelling and grammar, provide you a word count, and allow you to look up definitions, synonyms, and antonyms of words.
  • Language: These tools will allow you to change the language that you are writing in (Word provides the “Proofing” tools in many different languages) and translate words as well. Note: We do not use the translation tool and therefore don’t have any insight as to how accurate it is.

Protect: This will allow you to protect your document from unwanted edits, comments, or any other kind of change.

There you have it, reviewing in Word in a nutshell. How do you review or proofread documents? Do you have any recommendations for translators or proofreaders?

Nisar_Nikzad

NISAR NIKZAD

Nisar, the dynamic force behind Translation Excellence, stands tall as its founder and CEO. This isn’t just any company—it’s a global heavyweight in boutique language services. Hailing from the vibrant city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Nisar brought his passion and expertise to the U.S. shores in 2001. In the realm of languages, he’s a titan. With 19 years under his belt, he’s worn hats from a linguist and instructor to a cultural bridge-builder and curriculum craftsman.

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