By Frank C. Rice

When you edit Word 2002 documents by using the Track Changes feature, the deleted text appears in a balloon in the right margin of the page. With one mouse click, you can display and print the deleted text with strikethrough formatting instead of in a balloon.

In earlier versions of Word, when you deleted text from a document, the deleted text was displayed with strikethrough formatting in the body of the page as follows:

In Microsoft Word 2002, this behavior was changed in print layout view, so that deleted text appears in a balloon in the right margin of the page. This is useful when you're removing deletions and other formatting marks from the body of the text, because it allows you to see the finished text without additional visual clutter. But in some situations, particularly for writers and editors, it is helpful to see the deleted text inside the body of the document. That way you can ensure that the deletions don't affect the intended meaning of the document.

In this column, we look at the option that allows you to display deletions with strikethrough formatting and remove the balloons from your pages.

To display deleted text with strikethrough formatting

1. Start Word. A new blank document opens.
2. If the Reviewing toolbar is not visible, on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Reviewing.
3. On the View menu, click Print Layout. This sets up the document view so that you can see any changes you make.
4. Type some text in the page.
5. On the Reviewing toolbar, click Track Changes.
6. Select a few words of text and press DELETE. The text appears in a balloon in the right margin of the page.
7. On the Reviewing toolbar, click Show, click Options, and, on the the Track Changes tab, clear the Use balloons in Print and Web Layout check box. This action gets rid of the balloons and displays the deleted text with strikethrough formatting in the body of the document.
8. Click OK.

The deleted text now appears with strikethrough formatting.

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More information

• Taming unruly formatting in your Word 2002 documents

About the author

Frank C. Rice works for the Office Developer Center team. In addition to contributing to the Office Power User Corner column, Frank writes developer articles for the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).

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