Get a Document Ready for Review

After you decide which method to use for feedback from reviewers, you need to “protect” the document for the kind of feedback you want; that is, lock the document so that only certain types of changes can be made, and then provide instructions for users on how to review your document.

“Lock” the document   Open the document for review, and then click Protect Document (Tools menu). Click Tracked changes or click Comments. Locking the document automatically enables revision marks or comments.

Decide how to distribute the document   You can send the document individually to each reviewer, route it so that each reviewer sees previous reviewers’ changes, or put the document on a network server or post it to a public folder. For more information, see Distribute Documents Online.

Include instructions for reviewers   In e-mail or the document itself, tell users what to expect. If you protect a document for tracking changes, tell reviewers that revision marks will automatically appear when they edit the document or add comments.

If you protect a document for comments only, tell reviewers that if they want to, they can select the text or graphic they want to comment on—which adds yellow shading—and then click the Insert Comment button on the Reviewing toolbar. If the toolbar isn’t displayed, they can click Reviewing (View menu, Toolbars submenu).

Are reviewers distracted by revision marks?   Tell them they can hide revision marks while editing by clicking Track Changes (Tools menu), clicking Highlight Changes, and then clearing the Highlight changes on screen check list. Highlight button Want reviewers to focus on key sections only?   If you used the Highlight button to mark text, tell reviewers they can find these sections by clicking Find (Edit menu), clicking More, and then clicking Highlight in the Format list. Want reviewers to add voice comments?   Reviewers with sound cards and microphones installed on their computers can insert voice comments. Tell reviewers to click the Insert Comment button on the Reviewing toolbar, and then to click the Insert Sound Object button in the Comments pane.

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Want to know more?   Look up Getting Results - Team Review in Help.