Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Examining Tracked Changes in a Macro.

Examining Tracked Changes in a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 24, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

If you need to develop a macro to process a document in which changes have been tracked (using the Track Changes feature), you may wonder how you can determine the number of changes in the document and how you can look at each of the changes, programmatically. It isn't that tough to do if you remember that the changes are organized when using the Revisions collection. This means that you can determine the number of changes using this code:

iNumChanges = ActiveDocument.Revisions.Count

Just like any other collection, you can step through each member of the Revisions collection and figure out various information about the changes represented in each particular member. While the details of what properties and methods belong to the Revisions collection is much too voluminous for this tip, you can determine the type of each change by looking at the Type property, in this manner:

vChange = ActiveDocument.Revisions(1).Type

At this point, vChange will be equal to a revision type that Word tracks. The actual number or revision types depend on the version of Word you are using, but these are the potential values and the built-in enumeration names for the revision types:

Value		Enumeration
0		wdNoRevision
1		wdRevisionInsert
2		wdRevisionDelete
3		wdRevisionProperty
4		wdRevisionParagraphNumber
5		wdRevisionDisplayField
6		wdRevisionReconcile
7		wdRevisionConflict
8		wdRevisionStyle
9		wdRevisionReplace
10		wdRevisionParagraphProperty
11		wdRevisionTableProperty
12		wdRevisionSectionProperty
13		wdRevisionStyleDefinition
14		wdRevisionMovedFrom
15		wdRevisionMovedTo
16		wdRevisionCellInsertion
17		wdRevisionCellDeletion
18		wdRevisionCellMerge
20		wdRevisionConflictInsert
21		wdRevisionConflictDelete

Additional information can be found in Word's Help system or by searching the Internet for the phrase "revisions collection". Information about the enumerations can be found at this Microsoft site:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/Word.WdRevisionType

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8922) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Examining Tracked Changes in a Macro.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Only Showing Readability Statistics

Perform a grammar check, and Word displays some statistics that represent an analysis of your words. By writing a macro ...

Discover More

Short-Lived Book1

If you have a problem that crops up when you first start Excel, it can be a bear to track down the cause of the problem. ...

Discover More

Inserting Today's Date

When writing letters, reports, or other date-dependent documents, you need to regularly insert the current date in the ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing How Changes are Noted in Word

Do you want to modify how Word marks changes in your document? It's easy to do, if you know where to look.

Discover More

Making Word Stop at the End of a Document when Reviewing Changes

The Track Changes tool is a great help when you want to see what edits have been made to a document. When you review ...

Discover More

Displaying Edits by Date

Track Changes is a great tool; it allows you to see what changes were made in a document and then determine whether you ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is two more than 3?

2025-09-01 04:32:02

SAndeepkothari

VERY USEFUL TIPS.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.