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How to Best Use Track Changes for Indie Authors
February 26, 2024
Track Changes for Indie Authors
As an indie author, you know how important editing is for sales. Without a polished manuscript, readers may quickly decide to DNF your book baby.
Track Changes for indie authors is an easy way to communicate with your editor about any revisions or changes they suggest.
If you have never used Track Changes before, you’re in luck! I’m Kaitlin, an editor for indie authors, and I have put together a guide to help you learn how to use this powerful and essential tool.
What is Microsoft Word's Track Changes?
Microsoft Word has a feature that allows another person (or multiple people) to make changes to a draft of your manuscript.
If you are utilizing Track Changes, you will send your editor your document electronically and they will be able to edit it without making any permanent changes.
When they finish editing your book, your editor will send it back and you will be able to see all of the edits they made, both in the text and off to the side.
Track Changes for indie authors is a wonderful tool because it allows you, the author, to have complete control over any edits. You can choose to accept them, reject them, or follow up with your editor for more information.
A step-by-step guide to marking up with Track Changes
To turn on Track Changes click “Review” and then click the icon that says “Track Changes” underneath it. If the icon is dark gray, that means it is on.
I suggest leaving the dropdown menu set to “All Markup” so you don’t miss anything.
To delete something in the document, simply delete it. You will notice that off to the side of the document will be a record of what was deleted (and by which user). I have my preferences set so that deletions are blue and what was deleted is set to strikethrough. You can change your preferences by going to the dropdown “Markup Options” menu and clicking “Preferences.”
To add something to the text, simply type it into the document. Just like deletions, the edits will be logged off to the side of the document. For me, insertions are underlined and in red. Again, you may change your preferences to whatever color you like.
A note: Some editors and authors don’t like the format of all edits in balloons along the side of the document. If you don’t like seeing edits in that format, go to the “Markup Options” dropdown menu, scroll to “Balloons” and then click “Show All Revisions Inline.” This is a cleaner way to view edits.
Comments are one of my favorite features of Track Changes for indie authors. This allows me to query the author about certain items, like author preference or continuity.
To leave a comment, highlight the portion of the text you are referring to and click the “New Comment” icon. It’s in the “review” menu and looks like a speech bubble with a green plus sign. A comment bubble will appear off to the side of the document and you can type your comment there. Make sure to publish the comment!
You will notice that there is a small comment bubble near the text you just highlighted. This is just another way to indicate that there is a comment there. If you want, you can hover over the highlighted text and the comment will appear.
What to do when you get your manuscript back
First, don’t be stressed. Yes, there are likely a lot of edits on your document. It can look like a sea of red! This does not mean your book was in bad shape or that you are a bad writer!
Remember, you and your editor are on the same team! When I edit I am trying to make sure the author’s story is conveyed perfectly to the reader. That means I need to correct some things. Don’t take the corrections personally.
Take a deep breath.
You can accept or reject any change you want.
Remember, this is your story! You are the boss.
When I do a copyedit or a proofread, I send my clients two versions of their story. One version shows all the changes. The other version is a “clean” copy with all changes accepted. Sometimes it’s easier to read through the clean copy and see if there is anything you don’t like (or that jumps out at you) rather than going through your entire document edit by edit.
How to accept or reject changes:
There are two icons in the “Review” menu: one titled “Accept” and one titled “Reject.” You can go through your edits one at a time and choose whether or not you would like to use them in your final draft, or you can choose to accept or reject them all at once.
My Top Tips for Track Changes for Indie Authors
- Start with comments. Comments are places where your editor needs more information from you. Handle all of these first so you can make any revisions necessary. When you finish each comment, be sure to DELETE it. Just marking it as done will not remove it from your document (it may just hide it).
- Change the colors. When I edit I keep my colors as blue and red because I want the edits to jump out at me. As an author, you may have a visceral reaction to seeing a lot of red. The solution is easy: go to your preferences and change the colors so your book is easier to read. I suggest making Deletions gray and Insertions blue or teal. It will be easier on your eyes and make revising go much faster.
3. Reject edits first. Go through your document and highlight only edits you wish to reject. There should not be a large number of these. If you are rejecting many edits per page, talk to your editor. It’s also good to remember that your editor is a trained professional and you are paying them for that knowledge. If you are rejecting a lot of edits on each page, that warrants a conversation.
4. Accept all other changes. Instead of going through every edit and accepting all that are left, just accept them all at once.
5. Ask your editor for clarification. If there are things that give you pause or you aren’t sure about, contact your editor!
Does Google Docs have something similar to Track Changes?
Many indie authors prefer to work in Google Docs rather than Microsoft Word. Google Docs is great! It is accessible to anyone with an internet connection, automatically saves your work, and is less expensive than Microsoft Word.
YES, Google Docs does have a function similar to Track Changes.
Here’s how to turn it on:
In the upper right-hand corner of your Google Doc you will see a pencil icon. Click it and a dropdown menu will appear with three options: Editing, Suggesting, and Viewing.
Click “Suggesting.” This will create comments for every change in the document. Your editor can work directly on the file and then you can sort through the edits at a later time. To leave a comment (without an edit), highlight a portion of text and click the “comment” icon. Then, type your comment. Be sure to hit the blue “Comment” button when you are done so it saves!
To review edits, go to Tools and then “Review suggested edits.”
Something to note: Since Google Docs is web-based, anyone with permission to see the document can open it whenever they want and see the edits. As the owner of the document, you will get notifications when someone comments or makes an edit. Editors can make thousands of edits in a manuscript. You do NOT want to receive all those notifications! (You also really shouldn’t be poking around in the document while your editor is working. That can get really confusing—and awkward!)
To turn off notifications, go to Tools and “Notification settings.” There you will be able to turn off all notifications.
Track Changes for Indie Authors
I hope this guide was helpful to you as you navigate Track Changes! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send me a message. I’d love to talk with you about this blog or your next project!
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