How to redline a document
Redlining a document means marking proposed changes — insertions, deletions, and comments — so the other party can see exactly what shifted and decide whether to accept it. In Word, that's Track Changes under the Review tab. In Google Docs, it's Suggesting mode. For a PDF, you need a markup tool that adds strikethroughs and highlights since PDFs don't have native track-changes. If you're a designer sending a brief or proposal to a client who doesn't have Word or Acrobat, a shared link they can annotate in a browser is often faster than any of these.
In Microsoft Word — Track Changes
Open the Review tab and click Track Changes (or Ctrl + Shift + E on Windows, Cmd + Shift + E on Mac). Every insertion you type appears underlined in a colour; every deletion stays visible with a strikethrough. Set the markup view to All Markup so the other person sees every change in context. When they open the file, they can Accept or Reject individual changes one by one, or accept all at once. One gotcha: Track Changes can be turned off silently by anyone who opens the file — if you need to prove the document hasn't been altered outside the marked edits, protect the document first under Review > Restrict Editing.
In Google Docs — Suggesting mode
Click the pencil icon in the top-right corner and switch from Editing to Suggesting. Any change you make now appears as a colour-coded suggestion the other person can accept or reject from a small toolbar that appears next to each edit. For comments without a direct edit, select text and press Ctrl + Alt + M (or Cmd + Option + M on Mac) to leave a note anchored to that passage. Suggesting mode is visible to anyone with the shared link — no download required. The limitation: if you send a Docs link to someone who only has Word, they'll need to convert it first, which sometimes scrambles the suggestions.
In a PDF — markup tools
PDFs don't support tracked changes the way Word does. The practical workaround is to use a tool with strikethrough, highlight, and sticky-note markup: Adobe Acrobat (strikethrough text → click the text, then choose Strikethrough), Preview on Mac (markup toolbar), or any browser-based PDF annotator. The catch: your changes won't auto-merge into the document — the other party has to read each markup and manually re-type the accepted changes into whatever source file they're working from. For a locked PDF proposal or contract, this is often the only option.
When the client doesn't have Word or Acrobat
This is where the standard workflow breaks down. You email a .docx, the client opens it in a browser-based Office viewer that doesn't support Track Changes, or they open it in Pages, and all your markup becomes static text they can't interact with. The workaround most designers fall into: emailing a PDF and asking for 'comments in the email' — which then live in an inbox thread instead of anchored to the document. If the other party can't reliably open a Word file with markup intact, a shared review link that works in any browser — where they click the exact paragraph and leave a pinned comment — removes the file-format friction entirely.
If the feedback you need is 'the client marks up the brief, you revise it' — not a tracked-changes negotiation between two Word users — consider dropping the document into Drafty and sharing the link. They click the paragraph they want to change and pin a comment to it, with no account and no software to install. You see every note anchored to the exact spot, reply in thread, push a revised version to the same URL, and resolve it. The back-and-forth that usually ends up across email threads stays in one place.
Open a live demoQuestions
- What does it mean to redline a document?
- Redlining means marking proposed changes — insertions, deletions, and explanatory comments — so the other party can see what shifted and decide whether to accept it. The term comes from the practice of marking up paper contracts in red ink. Today it usually means using Track Changes in Word, Suggesting mode in Google Docs, or strikethrough and comment tools in a PDF editor.
- What is the difference between redlining and Track Changes?
- Track Changes is Microsoft Word's specific implementation of redlining. 'Redlining' is the broader term used across contract law, design, and architecture for any markup that shows proposed changes. In practice, most people mean Track Changes when they say redline — but the word also covers Suggesting mode in Google Docs, PDF markup, and any system where changes are visible before being accepted.
- Can I redline a PDF document?
- Yes, but not with tracked changes. PDFs don't have a native track-changes layer. You can add strikethroughs, highlights, and sticky-note comments using Adobe Acrobat, Preview on Mac, or a browser-based PDF annotator — but the other person must manually apply accepted edits to the source document. For active back-and-forth negotiation, converting the PDF to a Word or Google Doc first makes accepting changes much faster.
- How do I redline a document so the other person can't turn off Track Changes?
- In Word, go to Review > Restrict Editing, check 'Allow only this type of editing in the document,' and select 'Tracked changes' from the dropdown. Set a password to lock it. The other party can still accept or reject changes, but they can't disable the tracking or edit without leaving a mark.
- How do I let a client redline a document without Microsoft Word?
- A few options: share it as a Google Doc in Suggesting mode (they need a Google account), share a PDF and ask for markup via Acrobat or Preview, or share it via a tool that supports browser-based commenting with no account required. The last option works best when the client isn't technical — they open a link, click the text they want changed, and type their note.
- How do I accept or reject redlines in Word?
- Go to the Review tab. Use the Accept and Reject buttons in the Changes group to step through each tracked change one at a time — or click the dropdown arrow on Accept and choose 'Accept All Changes' to approve everything at once. To see only the clean final text without markup, switch the display to 'No Markup' before accepting all.
Keep exploring
Stop emailing files back and forth.
Share one link. They comment on the exact spot — no account, always the current version.