Collaboration is a key element of good document creation in most workplaces.

In some cases, that might be a lot of people.

Fortunately, Word has pretty solid collaboration tools.

The instructions in this post are based on Word 2013.

Well note where any major differences occur.

Why Use Word Instead of Google Docs?

Its free, fast, simple, and everywhere.

Thats a powerful attraction.

And if Google Docs does what you need it to do, then why not use it?

Real-time collaboration is great in certain cases.

In fact, thats the kind of environment where Google Docs excels overall.

But its nowhere near as robust as Words offering when youre working with complicated documents or on complex teams.

And thats the kind of environment where Microsoft Word excels.

In the end, its about choosing the tool that works best for your team.

People who insist on emailing me changes because they dont want to mess with the document.

People who print documents out and redline changes with their trusty pen.

Added text shows up in a different color for each person whos made changes.

Deleted text also changes color and appears struck through with a line.

Commentsannotate a document with notes that dont really belong in the document text itself.

Depending on the version of Word youre working with, you also may find other collaboration tools.

Put a single person in charge of a document.

Depending on how you work on documents in your environment, this may seem like overkill.

But what happens if three people decide to edit the same document at the same time?

Also keep in mind that in many environments, things are a lot more complicated.

Consider this little case scenario.

My wife works for a company that consults for other companies preparing government proposals.

A single document may be over 100 pages.

There may be different authors working on every section of the document, with other techs or engineers contributing.

As you’re free to imagine, things get messy fast.

But even with this setup, you find people who make a run at find shortcuts around the system.

When its turned on, Word automatically marks all of the changes made to the document.

Formatting changes are noted in balloon text in the right column.

At some point, youll need to review changes and decide whether to accept or reject them.

Word provides a couple of ways to do this:

Toolbar.

The reviewing options are on the Tracking and Changes sections of the Review toolbar.

Use the Previous and Next buttons to move through changes in the document.

Use Accept to make a change permanent and move automatically to the next change.

Use Reject to revert to the original text or formatting.

you could also right-click any change to open a context menu with options for accepting and rejecting changes.

Use this view to see all of the tracked changes in the document.

Use this view to see the document as it would appear if all tracked changes are accepted.

Use this view to review the original state of the document before any changes were made.

Note that changes you have accepted will be considered part of the original document.

But, you could change all that.

Word 2013 (and 2016) makes this super easy.

grab the dropdown menu under the Track Changes button and then click Lock Tracking.

Word will ask you to assign a password.

you’re free to only unlock tracking if you enter the password.

When tracking is locked, nobody can turn off Track Changes and nobody can accept or reject any changes.

Any changes made to the document are tracked using whatever options youve set up.

Frankly, I hate using it.

It is much better to let each reviewer make changes in turn.

But sometimes, things happen.

Think of it more as the master document.

Both tools are found under the Compare button on the Review toolbar.

Youll work with two documents at a time.

When you combine two documents, your window will divide into three parts.

A large pane to the left shows the combined document, where tracked changes from both documents are shown.

Two smaller panes to the right show the original and revised document.

it’s possible for you to work through and accept changes using the normal methods.

This tool also offers a three-paned view, with the compared document on the left.

As you scroll, all three windows scroll together at the same point in the document.