How and When Turn Track Changes On or Off

Redlining contracts can be frustrating when you don't know how to use MS Word's Track Changes features to your advantage. According to?a recent poll, 91% of contract negotiators (myself included) use Microsoft Word’s Track Changes to redline contracts. But no one ever taught us how to leverage Track Changes for contract review purposes. Until now!

In?this newsletter, I'm going to show you how to master MS Word's Track Changes features which will lead to faster contract reviews, less back-and-forth, more enjoyment of your work, and greater negotiation leverage.

My name is?Nada Alnajafi. I'm a seasoned in-house attorney, blogger, author, and speaker who loves working with, talking about, and writing about contracts. And I'm determined to transform the way us lawyers and contracts professionals redline contracts for the better.

If you're interested in learning more?about contracts, follow me on?LinkedIn?and check out my book?Contract Redlining Etiquette?and my blog?Contract Nerds?????.

In this edition...

In this edition of Read Between the Redlines, we'll discuss when to turn Track Changes on or off. I'll also show you how to turn Track Changes on the normal way and a secret shortcut you can use without touching your mouse.

When to Turn Track Changes On

As I state in Rule #7 of Contract Redlining Etiquette, all redlines must be visible until final agreement. When redlining using MS Word, that means that Track Changes should be on until the parties have agreed on everything.

Lack of transparency and a uniform redlining process are issues that all contracts professionals have dealt with and will continue to deal with until we can all agree on one thing—markups should be visible until they are resolved. Period.

In our line of work, transparency is key. The best way to achieve transparency during a contract negotiation is by keeping all of your redlines marked and visible.

Using transparent markups is a concept supported and used by many contract experts. Law professor and transactional lawyer, Paul Swegle, states in his book Contract Drafting and Negotiation for Entrepreneurs and Business Professionals, “All edits by each side should be ‘marked,’ i.e., deletions shown as struck text and additions shown as new text. Do not allow the other party to exchange unmarked re-drafts.” I'll cover how to accept and reject redlines in what we call "cumulative redlines" in a future edition.

It doesn’t matter which redlining tool you use to mark the changes, whether Word, Google Docs, or a native browser within a CLM system. The bottom line is that all changes need to be visible until they are agreed upon and closed out.

When to Turn Track Changes Off

Do not turn Track Changes off until you are preparing the final version for execution. Keep all redlines marked and visible until they are resolved by the parties.?

Sometimes, we may turn Track Changes off temporarily to fix something minor. This is fine so long as the change truly is minor, you provide a disclaimer to the counterparty, and you remember to turn Track Changes back on afterward.

What happens if you accidentally forget to turn it back on in time? I promised Shaun Sethna I would answer this question. You can:

• Use the undo feature in Word or CTRL+Z to undo as much as you can. This works if you're only a few actions in. But if you've been heads down in redlining land for an hour and just realized, then the option below will probably work better for you.
• Save the current version, then do a Compare or Combine using Word that will merge multiple redlined versions into one document. I go over these steps in a previous edition of Read Between the Redlines.
• If you have been working on a complex document and you need ensure that there is zero chance of error, then I recommend starting over from scratch just to be safe.

How to Turn Track Changes On

1. Open the contract in Word.

2. Click on the Review tab.

3. Click on the Track Changes down arrow to expand the menu.

4. Click on For Everyone. This is the default setting in most instances of MS Word. If you know you already have this setting programmed, you can go to step 5.

5. Click on the Track Changes button so that it turns grey. That's how you know its On.

For Everyone vs. Just Mine?

"For Everyone" turns Track Changes ON for everyone who is using or editing the contract. This does not lock the document, but it saves it with Track Changes ON. The Track Changes button would need to be manually turned OFF in order to get out of it.

"Just Mine" turns Track Changes ON for you (the current author) only. This feature is new as of Aug 2022. If you don't see it in your version then you may have an older version.

I did a ton of research on this featuring to try and figure out why it was added and what the real-life benefit would be in the contracts world. There is none.

Everyone should be tracking changes to a contract. So always use the For Everyone feature and never use the Just Mine feature.

Shortcut to Turn Track Changes On or Off

Ctrl+Shift+E

Interested in more redlining fun?! ??

• If you live in Seattle then come meet me on September 8th at a Contract Nerds Networking Mixer on the lake!
• Check out my newest book?Contract Redlining Etiquette?(also available?in India!)
• Subscribe to the?Contract Nerds?blog for weekly contracting tips straight to your inbox. To get a little taste, here's our?latest blog post?about negotiating Data Protection Agreements.

It's safe to say that I'm a total?#contractnerd! ???? Are you?