Word tracked changes won’t go away? Remove them before sharing

Save a separate copy if you need to keep the review history. Open the copy and select Review > All Markup. Under Show Markup, show all reviewers and revision types. This matters if you were previously looking at one person’s edits or only seeing lines in the margin.

Start at the top of the document and use Accept or Reject on the Review tab. Accept keeps the proposed edit. Reject restores what was there before that edit. Use Accept All Changes or Reject All Changes only if the same decision applies to the whole document. If the recipient needs a clean copy for future editing, also turn Track Changes off.

Open the Reviewing Pane from the Review tab and check for remaining revisions with all markup filters visible. Check comments separately and delete the ones you do not intend to share. Save the copy, reopen it, and check All Markup again. If your desktop edition of Word for Windows offers Document Inspector, look under File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document for another check.

Check whether the owner shared the file with review-only access or locked tracking with a password. Ask the owner for an editable copy or to resolve the changes in the shared file. If the owner allows it and you can edit a separate copy, make the changes there and verify that the original still holds the review history.