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How to track changes in Google Docs

By the Docmend team · Updated · 4 min read

Short answer

Google Docs calls it Suggesting mode. At the top right, switch from Editing to Suggesting: your changes appear in a new colour and deletions are crossed out until the owner accepts or rejects them. Reviewers need Commenter or Editor access to suggest. If your reviewer has no Google account, the Docmend Chrome extension can collect their notes from a review link instead, as comments on the same words.

If you’re coming from Microsoft Word, Suggesting mode is the Google Docs version of Track Changes. Here is the full workflow, plus two things that matter for client work: what happens to suggestions when you send the Doc as a Word file, and what to do when the reviewer can’t sign in.

Turn on Suggesting mode

  1. Open the document in Google Docs on your computer.
  2. At the top right, click Editing, then choose Suggesting from the drop-down.
  3. Edit as normal. Everything you type shows in a new colour, and anything you delete is crossed out.

You can also select some text and click the Suggest edits button that appears in the right margin. If you don’t see Suggesting at all, you don’t have the right access: ask the owner to share the document with you as a Commenter or Editor, or click Request edit access.

Make a suggestion and explain it

A suggestion without a reason invites a back-and-forth. Click your suggestion, type a short note in the comment box, and click Reply. The owner gets an email about your suggestions and decides whether to keep them. For anything that isn’t a wording change, such as a question or a concern about a whole section, a plain comment is clearer than an edit.

Accept or reject suggestions

When a suggestion is accepted, it replaces the original text.

See who changed what

To see all suggested edits in one list, click Comments at the top right. For edits made directly (not as suggestions), use version history: hover over Last edit at the top right to see who last changed the file and when, or click it to browse earlier versions, see who made each change, and restore or copy an older version. Browsing earlier versions needs edit permission.

Comparing two copies saved outside Docs? Compare PDF highlights the words added or removed between two PDFs, and Text compare does the same for pasted text.

See also: how to compare two versions of a document in Word, Google Docs or PDF.

Track changes on your phone

In the Google Docs app on Android, tap More and turn on Suggest changes, make your edits, and tap Done. To review, tap the highlighted text, tap Suggestion, then Accept or Reject.

What happens when you download the Doc as Word

Google’s help page is clear: when you convert between Google Docs and Microsoft Office, suggestions in Google Docs become tracked changes in Word, and tracked changes in Word become suggestions in Google Docs. So a Doc with open suggestions arrives in your client’s Word as a page full of tracked changes, and comments travel with it too.

Accept or reject everything before you download, unless you want the client to see the edits. Our guide on why a Google Doc looks different in Word covers this alongside fonts and page size. The Docmend Word check can also remove comments and accept suggestions in the Word copy it makes, not in your Doc.

When your reviewer has no Google account

Suggesting needs Commenter or Editor access, and Google Docs asks people to sign in to a Google account before they can comment or suggest. If your client doesn’t use Google, the options are to have them create a Google account with their existing email, use visitor sharing on Google Workspace, send a PDF or Word copy, or share a Docmend review link. Our guide on how to let someone comment on a Google Doc without a Google account compares them.

With a Docmend review link, the reviewer highlights text and leaves notes with just their name, and one click adds those notes to your Doc as comments on the same words. They come back as comments, not suggestions, so you make the edits yourself. See does the reviewer have to install anything and whether Docmend needs Google Drive access.

Suggesting vs comments: which to ask for?

SuggestingCommentsDocmend review link
What the reviewer can doPropose exact text changesLeave notes on selected textHighlight text and leave notes
Account neededGoogle account, Commenter or Editor accessGoogle account, Commenter or Editor accessNo, just a name
What you get backEdits to accept or rejectComment threads to reply to and resolveComments on the same words in your Doc

A rule of thumb: ask for suggestions when you want the reviewer to fix wording, and comments when you want their opinion. For a full feedback round, see how to get client feedback on a document. To keep a record of the comments, see how to save a Google Doc as a PDF with comments.

Common questions

Can I make everyone suggest instead of edit?

Share the document with Commenter access. Google says people can suggest edits when you give them permission to comment on or edit the document; Commenters can suggest changes but can’t edit the text directly, so the original stays as it is until you accept.

Why don’t I see Suggesting?

You need Commenter or Editor access. Click Editing at the top right and choose Suggesting; if it isn’t there, ask the owner to share the document with you as a Commenter or Editor, or click Request edit access.

Do suggestions survive a download as Word?

Yes. Google says suggestions in Google Docs become tracked changes in Microsoft Office, and tracked changes in Office become suggestions when imported. Accept or reject them first if you don’t want the recipient to see them.

Sources

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