How to See Who Made Each Change in Track Changes

When reviewing a document that has been edited by multiple people, you need to know who added, deleted, or modified each piece of text. Word’s Track Changes feature records the author name and timestamp for every change, but finding that information is not always obvious. This article explains how to view the author name for each tracked change in Word for Windows, including the steps to switch between different review display modes and how to check the detailed change information for a single edit.

How Track Changes Stores Author Information

When Track Changes is turned on, Word records the user name and initials set in the Word Options dialog. Every insertion, deletion, formatting change, and comment is tagged with that user name and a timestamp. The author name is stored inside the document metadata and is not visible in the main text unless you use the correct review view. By default, Word shows changes in balloons in the margin or inline with colored underlines, but the author name is not displayed on every change marker. You must use one of the review display modes or the Reviewing Pane to see the author name for each change.

Prerequisites for Viewing Author Names

Before you can see who made each change, confirm that Track Changes was turned on when the edits were made. If changes were made with Track Changes off, Word does not record the author name for those edits. Also verify that the document has not been saved as a plain text file or exported to a format that strips revision data, such as PDF without markup preservation. The steps below work in Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, and Word 2016 on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Steps to See Who Made Each Change in Track Changes

Follow these steps to reveal the author name for every tracked change in your document.

1. Switch to All Markup view
   Open your document in Word. Go to the Review tab. In the Tracking group, click the Display for Review box, which currently shows either Simple Markup or No Markup. Select All Markup from the dropdown list. This view displays every tracked change with colored markup. Insertions appear as underlined text in the author’s assigned color, and deletions appear as strikethrough text or in balloons in the margin.
2. Open the Reviewing Pane
   Still on the Review tab, in the Tracking group, click Reviewing Pane. Choose either Reviewing Pane Vertical or Reviewing Pane Horizontal. The Reviewing Pane lists every tracked change in order, showing the author name, the date and time of the change, and a description of the change (for example, “Inserted ‘new paragraph’” or “Deleted ‘old text’”).
3. Hover over a change to see the author name
   If you prefer not to use the Reviewing Pane, hover your mouse pointer over any tracked change inline in the document. A tooltip appears that shows the author name, the date and time of the change, and the type of change. This works for insertions, deletions, formatting changes, and comments.
4. Filter by a specific author
   To see changes from only one person, go to the Review tab. In the Tracking group, click Show Markup. Point to Specific People and clear all check marks except the one next to the author whose changes you want to view. Word hides all changes from other authors. To show all changes again, click Show Markup > Specific People > All Reviewers.
5. Use the Reviewing Pane to compare multiple authors
   With the Reviewing Pane open, you can sort the list of changes by author, date, or type. Click the column header in the Reviewing Pane to sort. This makes it easy to see all changes made by one author grouped together.

If You Cannot See Author Names for Tracked Changes

Several factors can prevent author names from appearing. Below are the most common problems and how to resolve them.

Track Changes Shows “Author” as the Name for All Changes

If every change shows “Author” instead of a real name, the document was likely created by an earlier version of Word or was edited by someone who did not set a user name. Open Word Options (File > Options > General) and check the User name field. If the document was received from another person, ask them to set their user name before editing. There is no way to retroactively assign a real name to changes already marked as “Author.”

The Reviewing Pane Is Empty or Shows No Data

If the Reviewing Pane opens but shows no changes, the document may have been saved with Track Changes turned off, or all changes may have been accepted or rejected. Check the Display for Review setting and make sure it is set to All Markup. Also confirm that the document contains tracked changes by looking for colored markup in the text.

Changes Appear Without Color or Underline

If changes are present but not visually marked, you may be in No Markup or Original view. Switch to All Markup as described in step 1. If changes still do not appear, the document may have been protected to hide tracked changes. Go to Review > Tracking > Track Changes and ensure it is turned on. If it is grayed out, the document may have been locked by the author.

Reviewing Pane vs Inline Tooltip: Which Shows More Detail

Item	Reviewing Pane	Inline Tooltip
Author name	Always visible for each change	Visible on hover
Date and time	Displayed for every change	Displayed on hover
Change description	Detailed text (e.g., “Inserted ‘new text’”)	Brief description
Sorting and filtering	Supports sorting by author, date, type	Not available
Viewing all changes at once	Lists all changes in one pane	Requires hovering each change individually

Use the Reviewing Pane when you need to review a large number of changes from multiple authors. Use the inline tooltip when you only need to check the author of a single change quickly.

Now you can identify who made each change in a Word document using the Reviewing Pane, the inline tooltip, or the author filter. To speed up future reviews, set your user name in Word Options before sharing a document for editing. For advanced control, try using the Compare feature under Review > Compare to merge changes from two versions of a document while preserving author names.