Erin Wright Writing

Writing-Related Software Tutorials

How to Remove User Names from Existing Track Changes in Microsoft Word

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My previous tutorial “How to Change Your User Name for Track Changes in Microsoft Word” shows how to change user names for comments and edits created with Track Changes. However, Word doesn’t have a straightforward way to change user names connected to existing comments and edits, so that tutorial only works for new comments and edits. As an alternative, today’s tutorial demonstrates how to remove user names connected to all Track Changes (existing and future) and replace them with the default label Author, as shown in figure 1.

Note that this process will also remove time stamps (time and date) from comments and edits.

How to Remove User Names from Existing Track Changes in Microsoft Word | Before and After Image of Changed User Name
Figure 1. User name changed to “Author”

This solution obviously isn’t ideal for those of us who would like to change our user name for existing comments and edits to something other than Author, but it is useful when anonymity is important.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 100 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. The steps are the same for Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010.

Are you on a Mac? Please see “How to Remove Names from Existing Track Changes in Word for Mac.”

Remove User Names from Existing Track Changes

Caution: This process is not reversible and applies to all users associated with the document, even those who haven’t used Track Changes. It also permanently removes authorship and “Last Modified By” data. Therefore, you should complete this process on a secondary copy of your document rather than on the original.

1. Open a secondary copy of your original document saved under a different file name. (Please see the Caution statement above.)

2. Select the File tab.

Word 2019 File Tab
Figure 2. File tab

3. Ensure that you are in the Info tab in the Backstage view.

Info tab in the Backstage view of Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 3. Info tab in the Backstage view

4. Select the Check for Issues button.

Check for Issues button in the Backstage view of Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 4. Check for Issues button

5. Select Inspect Document in the drop-down menu.

Inspect Document option in the Backstage view of Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 5. Inspect Document option

6. Save your document by selecting Yes in the question dialog box. (This dialog box may not appear if you recently saved your changes.)

Document Inspector question dialog box in Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 6. Question dialog box

7. Uncheck all the options in the Document Inspector dialog box except Document Properties and Personal Information.

Document Properties and Personal Information checkbox in the Document Inspector in Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 7. Document Properties and Personal Information checkbox

8. Select the Inspect button.

Inspect button in the Document Inspector in Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 8. Inspect button

9. Select the Remove All button next to Document Properties and Personal Information.

Remove All button in the Document Inspector in Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 9. Remove All button

10. Review the inspection results.

Document Inspector results in Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 10. Inspection results

11. Select the Close button to close the Document Inspector dialog box.

Close button in the Document Inspector in Word 2019 / Word 365
Figure 11. Close button

12. Save, close, and reopen your document.

13. Verify that all user names have been changed to Author in the Track Changes balloons, as shown in figure 1.

If you would like to resume using user names within the same document, visit “How to Stop Microsoft Word from Calling You “Author” in Track Changes.”

Related Resources

How to Change the Font and Font Size of Comments in Microsoft Word

How to Search within Comments in Microsoft Word

How to Use Comments in Microsoft Word (Modern Comments)

How to Insert Citations in Microsoft Word

Updated August 22, 2022