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Collaborating in Word

Author: Sophia

what's covered
In this lesson, you will learn why you may want to collaborate in Microsoft Word and explore the steps involved. You will better understand how using this tool and your technology skill can help you improve your productivity skill.

Specifically, this lesson will cover:
  1. Reasons to Collaborate
  2. Collaboration Features
    1. Comments
    2. Changes

1. Reasons to Collaborate

Microsoft Word and other word processing apps provide ways for you to collaborate with others. You may need to do this at work or even in your personal life. Chances are, you have had to work with others in school as well. The list below is just a small sampling of when you may need to work together with others:

  • A project in school where each person adds two slides to a presentation
  • A peer review of an essay for a classmate
  • Submitting a draft of a report to your supervisor before sending it to the entire team
  • Sharing a party invite with friends and asking for feedback before finalizing
Technology: Apply Your Skill
You are in a virtual history class. You have been assigned to be the team leader for a group project. One of your tasks is to create an outline that everyone can use to add their content. After you draft the document in Google Docs, what is your next step to give everyone access?


2. Collaboration Features

big idea
In Microsoft Word, you may recall the collaboration features are located under the review ribbon. While you will find many tools here, the two most important when it comes to collaboration are comments and changes.

MS Word Review Ribbon Collaboration Items

Productivity: Skill Tip
Being able to collaborate with others this way can make you more productive. When both parties have quick access to the same document in an online forum…..collaboration can take place quickly and efficiently.

2a. Comments
You can think of comments as notes handwritten in the margin. These are areas or items you wish to draw attention to as you write or as you review. They might be notes to yourself like “remember to add in-text citation here,” or they might be intended for others.

For example, if a friend is reviewing your research paper, you might leave a comment like “let me know what you think of this sentence.” The collaboration piece comes in when you write comments for someone else or they write them for you. All parties with access can see all comments. Once addressed, they can be resolved or deleted. It is like having a digital conversation within the document.

term to know
Comments
Handwritten notes in the margin of a Word document.

2b. Changes
Chances are you have asked someone to review a paper you wrote or you have been on the receiving end of that request. In either case, chances are you or your friend want the opportunity to review any proposed changes before accepting and finalizing them. This is where changes come into play.

Changes in a document include deleting, adding, or replacing words. To do this, there are several tools you would use:

Track Changes When you enable this feature, you can make changes to text without losing the original work. Anything you change is tracked and indicated with text in a different color or with a highlight.
Accept As the owner of the document, you can choose to accept proposed changes. When this happens, the original text is replaced with the new suggestion.
Reject You can also choose to reject any proposed changes. When this is selected, the proposed material is deleted and you are left with the original text.
Viewing Options Sometimes it is helpful to see your work without all of the edits. This can help you determine if the changes will look good or not.

These tools are also located under the review ribbon (like the collaboration tools).

did you know
To accept or reject all changes you can click the arrow under accept or reject and choose the "all" option.

summary
In this lesson, you explored various reasons to collaborate with others in Microsoft Word or another word processing application. You then looked at two important collaboration features you can use to accomplish this (comments and changes). Understanding these tools can improve your technology skill. Using them can help you be as productive as possible.

See you in the next challenge!

Terms to Know
Comments

Handwritten notes in the margin of a Word document.