You’ve received your manuscript from your trusty editor in all its tracked glory. There are lines and colors and bubbles everywhere. Now what?
Editors mark up different things in different ways. It can be a bit overwhelming to work through them all. In this blog, I’ll show you how to use the Review ribbon to work through the tracked changes in your edited file, in Word 365.
Subjective and objective changes
Most of the changes in your document will be things that are objectively incorrect according to the style guide you’ve chosen and generally agreed spelling and grammar rules. The objective changes are the changes that are tracked (usually without comment), like missing quotation marks, comma splices, verb agreement and misplaced modifiers. Some clients ask me to make these changes silently, which means not tracking them at all.
A 50 000 word book with every single change tracked can have over 13 000 tracked changes!
Then there are the subjective changes, where the writing is not technically wrong but where the editor has suggested another way of doing it. Subjective changes are usually accompanied by a comment explaining why, or giving more options, like suggesting a synonym to fix repetitive phrasing, continuity issues, sensitivity issues, or changes the editor wasn’t sure about. For example, I once queried the use of binary pronouns for genderless aliens. It wasn’t wrong, but it could have been done differently—and the author agreed!
Receiving your manuscript from the editor
When I send my clients their manuscripts, one of my extra services is to send an additional “clean copy” that has all the objective changes already accepted, so they can focus on the changes that need their judgment.
Here’s a comparison of a fully tracked page and a clean copy with comments:
Viewing options
When you are reading the document, you can choose Simple Markup, All Markup, No Markup, and the Original text. I like Simple Markup the best. It shows the final form of the text but also marks where changes have been made so you can review them, without getting confused by having the old text visible. You can switch between the views as much as you like; it doesn’t change the file, just what is displayed.
You can either look at the changes in the margins of the document, or in the Reviewing pane.
Reviewing tracked changes
There are a few different approaches you can take when working through the tracked changes.
Change by change
You might want to work steadily from the top to the bottom, accepting and rejecting changes one by one. This can be quite tedious. I don’t recommend it!
Chunk by chunk
You can highlight a whole paragraph in the document and click Accept or Reject to decide all the changes in that paragraph.
Rejections first
This is the most efficient way to deal with extensive changes, since authors usually only reject about 10% of the changes that have been made.
- Skim through the document to see each change.
- Reject the few changes you disagree with.
- Accept all the rest.
Accepting and rejecting changes
- To accept a change, click it in the Reviewing pane and then click Accept.
- To reject a change, click it in the Reviewing pane and click Reject.
- To accept all the changes in the whole document (because your editor is simply marvelous) click the little arrow below Accept and click Accept All Changes.
Comments
You’re halfway there! You’ve accepted or rejected all the tracked changes, and your text is now quite clean, but there are still visible comments full of questions or suggestions from your editor. These are the things your editor really wants your input on. I usually send a separate list of the contents of the comments that need resolving (queries) to my clients. That way I can be sure that they see all the questions and can easily respond to them.
The space in the comment boxes is quite small, and some problems pop up more than once. I’ll usually put a more detailed explanation in the Style Sheet and Editorial Report, and then refer to that more briefly in the comments. For example, a comment might say “To fix head-hopping” and the Style Sheet will explain what head-hopping is. Sometimes I might just add a comment saying that I liked something. In that case, there’s no need to do anything but pat yourself on the back.
Resolving queries
Well-trained and experienced editors will usually tell you how they would like you to resolve queries. By sending my queries separately, the author can respond there without risking introducing errors into the work I’ve already checked. Some editors like you to reply to the comments so they can make the changes. Others might be okay with you making the changes directly on the text, at your own peril!
Still, it’s worth knowing how to use the comments:
- Once you’ve resolved the issue (or if you’re happy with the way things are), click the comment.
- To show it’s been resolved, click Resolve.
- You can also Reply to the comment.
- If you’re not sending the manuscript back to the editor for a final pass (a very risky move since you may have introduced errors while adding or removing things!) then you can simply Delete the comments and call it done.
There’s no need to reply to explanatory comments, or to argue your point of view. We editors use our training and resources to figure out how to solve problems in a consistent way, but the author’s voice is important too. Our feelings won’t be hurt if you disagree. Many comments are just suggestions, and as the author, the power to make the decision is yours.
Next steps
Congratulations! You’re done. Once you’ve reviewed all of your tracked changes, here are some further actions you can take before publishing:
- Format your document. Consider using a professional designer or a ready-made book template.
- Have your book proofread. Errors can creep in at any stage of the process.
- Don’t forget to have your blurb and cover proofread too!
- Thank your editor with a quick testimonial.
I hope this has helped you to work through your edit. Let me know if you have any questions! If you would like me to work with you on your book, send me an email.
