Noting Moved Words and Phrases in Markup

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 3, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


Jason notes that Track Changes indicates the move of a sentence or paragraph from one location to another in a document with the usual green double underline/strikethrough. It will not, however, show the move of a word or phrase. He wonders if there is any way to show the usual move coloration or other indicator without using a macro. (Jason's company has disabled macro access.) There will be many moves of words, so manually changing the color or highlighting would be more effort than desirable.

The short answer is no, as Word will only note the movement of entire sentences. This does, however, lead to a potential workaround—you might be able to "trick" Word into thinking that you are moving a sentence. Place a sentence-terminating punctuation mark after the phrase you want to move, then move it, and finally remove the punctuation marks. If Word falls for your trickery, you'll have the movement mark-up that you desire.

Of course, this is a bit of work to do, and it may be more work than you want to engage in for the desired outcome. That is a decision you'll need to make, however, as it is the only non-macro workaround that we could come up with. Plus, you should understand that the workaround may not work at all if adding the punctuation mark still doesn't convince Word that you are moving a sentence.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12997) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.

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. ...

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