Tracked Changes Notification when Opening

Robin is looking for a way to notify users, when a document is opened, as to whether there are any tracked changes in the document. This is not a standard feature of Word, but it can be added easily enough with an AutoOpen macro. If you want the macro to simply indicate whether Track Changes is turned on, you can use the following:

Sub AutoOpen()
    If ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True Then
        MsgBox "Track Changes is On."
    End If
End Sub

Note that this macro doesn't let you know if there are actually any changes in the document, so it doesn't help in the situation where Track Changes is turned off, but unresolved changes from a previous editing session still exist. In that case, you need to expand the macro slightly.

Sub AutoOpen()
    On Error Resume Next

    If ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True Then
        MsgBox "Track Changes is On"
        With ActiveWindow.View
            .ShowRevisionsAndComments = True
            .RevisionsView = wdRevisionsViewFinal
        End With
        Exit Sub
    End If

    If ActiveDocument.Revisions.Count > 0 Then
        MsgBox "Document contains revisions"
        With ActiveWindow.View
            .ShowRevisionsAndComments = True
            .RevisionsView = wdRevisionsViewFinal
        End With
        Exit Sub
    End If
End Sub

This version of the macro checks two conditions, displaying a message box if Track Changes is turned on and also displaying a message box if there are any changes existing in the document. In both cases, the macro also changes the view of the document so that changes are visible on-screen.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10971) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Tracked Changes Notification when Opening.