Clear Communication with Microsoft Word’s Track Changes
Take your editing processes and client relationships to the next level by intentionally aligning your Track Changes markup with your communication goals
Microsoft Word’s Track Changes is one of the primary tools many editors use to communicate with clients—it’s how we show them what we’ve done to the text.
But it’s an imperfect tool with its own logic and quirks, and if we just let it run in the background and hope for the best, the decisions we think are clear as we’re making them may not be clear to the author when they receive our edits.
When we learn to use this tool with greater skill and intentionality, in tandem with comments and other written communication, we can present our clients with markup that’s easier for them to read, interpret, and make decisions about. And when we do that, we build stronger relationships with them, leading to more repeat business!
Hi, I’m Erin
Since becoming a freelance editor in 2019, I’ve spent a lot of time paying attention to how Track Changes behaves and considering the best ways to use it in my work. In this self-paced course, I’m sharing those observations and principles with you so that you can work more effectively, avoid misunderstanding, build better relationships with your clients, and ultimately grow your editing career.
This course is a deep dive into the functions of Track Changes through the lens of the editing decisions we make. We don’t all work with the same types of documents or clients, so there’s lots of room for exploration and self-reflection to figure out what works best for you.
This course is for you if...
- You want to communicate more effectively with clients
- You work in Microsoft Word and have some experience with Track Changes
- You’re open to new ways of approaching the details of your editing work
What you’ll get
16 lessons in 7 modules
In these text-based lessons (no video), I address different aspects of Track Changes and how to think about using it. See Course curriculum below for the full outline.
24 demos and 12 exercises
As a complement to the lessons, downloadable Word documents provide demonstrations of the course concepts and exercises for you to try things out yourself.
21 questions for reflection
Each module ends with three open-ended questions to get you thinking about how to apply the course concepts to your own work.
Course curriculum
Click on each module to expand it and see the lesson titles.
If you want to learn more before purchasing the course, the lessons in Module 1 are available as a free preview. If you'd like to see one of the demos, here's a PDF version of one from Module 2 introducing some ideas that are explored further in later modules.
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Module 1: Track Changes as a Communication Tool
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Module 2: All Markup vs. Simple Markup
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Module 3: Clear Copyedits
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Module 4: Deleting and Inserting vs. Moving
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Module 5: Silent Changes
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Module 6: Managing Formatting Markup
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Module 7: Putting It All Together