Track and view changes

Track changes mode

When collaborating on a document, co-authors can use track changes mode to record changes to cell content.

To enable the Track changes mode, on the Review tab, click  Display changes and select Track changes. When the mode is enabled, the  Display changes button will appear on the Status bar. Use it to access the same functions as the button on the Review tab.

To start tracking the changes, you need to enable the track changes mode first. You can view changes even when the mode is turned off (see below).

If the mode is disabled and a new change is made to a cell for which a change history has previously been recorded, the existing change record is deleted and the new change is not recorded.

The following restrictions apply when working in the Track changes mode:

–Merging and unmerging cells is not available.

–Only the last change to a cell is saved; the complete change history is not available.

–The following changes are not recorded:

•Changes in cell format and size.

•Insertion and deletion of sheets, rows, and columns.

Tracking changes is supported in .xlsx documents, but not in .ods/xods documents. Tracking changes is not supported in macros and SDK.

Display and view changes

A cell with changed content in the Track changes mode is outlined with a frame and labeled with a triangular marker in the corner.

If you want to disable the labeling of cells with changed content, on the Review tab, click  Display changes and clear the Highlight changed cells checkbox.

You can view information about the last change in a cell in several ways:

–If the Display changes when selecting a cell setting is enabled (Review tab,  Display changes button drop-down menu), select the cell with changes.

–If the Display changes when selecting a cell setting is disabled, right-click the cell and select Latest change from the context menu.

Information about the last change is displayed in a pop-up text box next to the cell and contains:

–The author of the change.

–The date and time the change was made.

–Description of the change in the format Changed: “<old value>” to “<new value>”.

Information about changes is displayed in the language of the operating system; the application interface language settings do not affect this.

The documents display changes made both in MyOffice Spreadsheet and in third-party editors. When you save a document from a third-party editor in MyOffice Spreadsheet, the structure of the saved changes may be altered, as only the most recent changes are processed and saved.