How to Redline a Document in Microsoft Word

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"Redlining" is a form of editing in which red ink is used to indicate removal or addition of text in Microsoft Word. You can redline a Microsoft Word document by using Microsoft Word's built-in "Track Changes" feature, or you can manually redline the document with font color changes and strike-throughs. "Track Changes" is perfect for large-scale editing and feedback, whereas manual redlining is better suited to smaller documents and papers that are sent between different versions of Word.

How to Redline in Word

Select the “Review” tab.
Select “Track Changes.”
Choose “All Markup” to display added text in red.
Click “Show Markup” in the dropdown menu to change which kinds of material appears.

Method 1 of 2:

Using Track Changes

Open the document you wish to edit.

In the toolbar at the top of the screen, click the "Review" tab. This tab contains tools to help with spell checking and editing, including the "Track Changes" feature. [1] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

You can also turn on "Track Changes" from any tab by pressing Control + ⇧ Shift + E .

Open the drop-down menu next to the "Track Changes" button. This menu lets you choose how advanced your change tracking is. [3] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

Your other options are "Simple Markup", which displays red lines next to edited lines of text but doesn't show specifically what changed, "No Markup", which doesn't display changes at all, and "Original", which draws a line through deleted text but doesn't show replacement text.
In "Simple Markup", you can click the red lines next to edited lines of text to show which changes were made (as in "All Markup"). [4] X Research source

Checking "Comments" shows any editor comments in the margins.
Checking "Ink" shows editor drawings.
Checking "Insertions and Deletions" shows added and removed text.
Checking "Formatting" shows changes to formatting (e.g., double-spacing or changing the margins).

Highlight some text, then click "New Comment" in the "Comments" section of the toolbar. This feature allows you to add feedback to highlighted text. Your feedback will appear in the right-hand edits bar. [5] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

Edit the document as you please. Whenever you delete or add a character, Microsoft Word will place a vertical red line next to the line of text in which the edit was made. [6] X Research source

Click "Accept" to save your changes. Your document has been successfully redlined! Clicking "Accept" removes the red ink and other formatting indicators. [7] X Research source

Advertisement Method 2 of 2:

Redlining Manually

Open the document you wish to edit. Manually redlining a document is preferable if you're editing a document in an outdated version of Word or if you want more control over which changes are displayed. Manual redlining is compatible with all versions of Word.

Click the "Home" tab if it isn't already open. This tab contains tools such as text bolding, italicizing, and underlining. The Home tab is in the blue toolbar at the top of the screen.

Find the "Strikethrough" button in the toolbar. It's located right next to the "Underline" button. You'll use strikethrough to cross out undesired text.

You can change the "Font Color" selection by clicking on the bar underneath "A", then selecting a new color from the drop-down menu.

Click and drag the mouse cursor over an unwanted section of text to highlight it. While text is highlighted, any tool you use will affect it--for example, clicking the "Font Color" button will change the highlighted text to whichever color the bar on the button is. [8] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

Click the "Strikethrough" button to place a line through the highlighted text. This will demonstrate recommended deletion of the highlighted content. [9] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

Make sure there is a space between the end of your strikethrough and the next word. Otherwise, any following text that you type will automatically have a line through it.

Place your cursor at the end of the space after the strikethrough text. If you're retyping the strikethrough text, you'll want to do it in a different color than the default text.

Click the "Font Color" button. If your new text isn't a different color than the document's default text, change it to something highly visible (e.g., red or orange). This is your "editing" color.

Add your replacement text after the strikethrough text. The line through the former text combined with your new, red-ink text will clearly show which text was "deleted" and the text replacing it.

For example, use your editing color if you add a semicolon to a run-on sentence.

Repeat steps 5 through 11 until your document is completely edited.

You can also click "File" in the upper left-hand corner of the screen and select "Save".

Community Q&A

What does a wiggly green underline mean? Community Answer The green line is usually a grammatical error, or at least what Word considers a grammatical error.

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How do you change the underlined words from red to black? Community Answer

Right-click on the word and options will show. Click the correct one, and the word will be spelled correctly.

How do I get rid of red lining in a document to make it a clean copy? Community Answer

The following is from Microsoft's OfficeSupport. "To delete the tracked changes permanently, accept or reject them. Word accepts the change or removes it and then moves to the next change. To accept all the changes at the same time, click the arrow by Accept and click Accept All Changes. To remove comments from your document, delete them."

Ask a Question 200 characters left Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Advertisement Manual redlining is perfect for small editing projects, like peer feedback in a classroom.

If you're on a shared PC, you can lock the "Track Changes" feature with a password so other Word users can't make changes under your name.

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