Blog for Bristol Services Intl.

Numerous writing clients come to me and they’ve used MSWord but have NOT used that program’s Tracking or Revise feature. Granted, every word processing software program (and EVERY software program, as a matter of fact) has way more “features” than us regular users could/would ever use. But … MSWord’s Tracking feature is nifty and well worth the few moments it takes to learn. And, yes, it really does only take a short time.

What does Tracking do for you? It lets you mark suggested or possible changes without removing the original. For instance, if you kind of like a paragraph where the heroine laments her fate, but would like to see what this would sound like if she told the would-be hero off instead, then use this method to revise a whole chapter. Or maybe you want to try using first person instead of third. Revise that way for a few pages. Then read it through. Like parts of it but not others? With this method you can then accept or reject any of the changes you made with only a single click for each decision. Or a single click to accept or reject ALL the changes.

Or pass the file on to someone else (like me!) for editing and when the file returns you can see every suggested change and you can quickly accept or reject each suggestion without retyping a thing! Neat, huh?

I created a one-page, non-technical, hands-on single page that let’s my clients try out the features of Word’s Tracking or Revise mode (some versions of Word called it Tracking and others Revise–but it is all the same). I am no software expert and I’m sure you’ll get more in-depth info on this great feature of MSWord’s eleswhere, but if you just want a simple and to-the-point, learn-and-get-on-with-it explanation, here it is.

Want to try it out? Just email me and just say you want my Tracking Example page. At this point I had planned to give you a download link to let you download that page immediately to try for yourself. Only … confession time … I don’t know how to add a downloadable link. So if any of you can tell me that, I’d appreciate it. Then I’ll change this posting to add that link. But in the meantime, just drop me an email and I’ll pop the file off to you in a return email.

Then let me know how it goes for you!