Stopping Automatic Changes from Being Tracked

Track Changes is a great feature for keeping track of what gets changed in a document. There are some things (such as field results) that Word changes automatically. This can play havoc with what is shown by Track Changes. Here's why that occurs and what you can do about it.

As you may already know, Word allows you to insert fields in your documents. These fields can be used for quite a few handy things, such as the current date, the active page number, the user's initials, or a host of other tidbits of information. What makes these fields handy is that they are automatically updated by Word. Some fields are automatically updated when you open a document, others are updated just before you print, and you can manually update fields at any time you desire.

All this updating can cause a problem if you have Word's Track Changes feature turned on. If the feature is turned on and a field is updated, the field results show as a "change" in the document. This problem is most often exhibited with date fields but can also be a problem with other fields. For instance, page numbers, if implemented through fields, will show as "changes" if they are updated.

The only way to stop Word from updating fields is to lock them. You can do this by selecting the entire document (Ctrl+A) and then pressing Ctrl+F11. The fields will then remain locked until you specifically unlock them by selecting the entire document and pressing Ctrl+Shift+F11. In other words, you could lock the fields, turn on Track Changes, make any changes you want, turn off Track Changes, resolve the changes, and then unlock the fields.

If you only have a limited number of fields in your document and you know exactly when they are being updated, then there are a couple of other steps you can take. For instance, Word automatically updates fields in headers and footers when you open a document. To bypass this action, switch to Draft view, turn on Track Changes, and then save your document. Later, when you open the document, it should still be in Draft view. Word won't update the headers and footers—even on opening the document—unless you are in Print Layout view. (It doesn't update headers and footers in Draft view because headers and footers are not displayed in Draft view.) While editing in Draft view, only those changes you make will be visible. Word will, however, automatically update the headers and footers if you switch to a view that requires them to be shown on the screen, such as Print Layout, or if you look at the document in Print Preview. In this case, the only way to stop the automatic update is to lock the fields, as previously described.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9921) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Stopping Automatic Changes from Being Tracked.