Are you looking to turn on Track Changes in Google Docs? If so, you’re probably coming from the Microsoft ecosystem to the Google ecosystem, where editing mode is called Track Changes in Word.
“Track Changes” in Word is called “Suggesting” mode in Google Docs. Turning it on is pretty easy.
What we’ll cover in this article is:
- What is Suggesting Mode in Google Docs?
- How to turn Suggesting Mode On in Google Docs.
- How to review suggestions that have been made.
- How we use Suggesting mode and Comments while editing
What is Suggesting Mode in Google Docs?
Suggesting Mode is Google Docs’ version of Microsoft Word’s Track Changes.
In short, Suggesting Mode is how an editor can review a document and show their work. Any changes they make are made as “suggestions” instead of direct edits within the document, which are not as easily tracked and audited.
Suggesting Mode puts a line through the text, adds the new text in green, and shows on the side what was done. Here’s an example:

When reviewing, each individual suggestion can be accepted or declined using the checkmark or “x” options on the individual edit. We’ll talk more about reviewing suggestions below.

How to Turn On Suggesting Mode
By default, anyone who loads up a Google Doc is in Editing mode, which means edits made will not be tracked.
Turning on Suggesting Mode is easy, though. Go to the top of the page and find, on the right side, where there’s a dropdown that says “Editing”:

Click the dropdown:

Select Suggesting and you’ll be in Suggesting Mode:

How to Review Suggestions That Have Been Made
When suggestions have been made, you need to review them before the document is ready to be published.
There are two ways to review suggestions:
- One by one
- All at once
Reviewing Suggestions One by One
The in-depth way to review all made suggestions is to review them one by one. There are two ways to do this:
- Scroll through the page and review each individual suggestion, Accepting or Declining it.
- Tools -> Review Suggested Edits -> Review them one at a time.
First, you can scroll down the page and handle each individual edit by clicking the Approve check ✔️ or Decline ⅹ to resolve it.

The other option is to use “Review suggested edits” to pull up all of the edits and work through them one at a time.
Find it under Tools -> “Review suggested edits.”

You can quickly click “Accept” on each, or Reject the ones that you don’t want to keep.

Reviewing All Suggestions at Once
There is an easier way to accept all suggestions, which is my preferred way. I’ll accept them all, then read/scroll through the document to catch anything (if anything) that looks off so I can fix it. Then, I’ll do a final spelling and grammar check using both the built-in tools and Grammarly Pro.
To accept all suggestions at once, navigate back to the Tools -> Review suggested edits option.
Instead of clicking Accept for each suggested edit, click the dropdown next to Accept, then click “Accept All (#).”

All of the suggested edits will be accepted, then you can read or scroll through to do your final QA.
How We Use Suggesting Mode and Comments in Editing
Most of the editing we do at EditorNinja is in Google Docs. We use two features to do our work:
- Suggesting Mode for edits that we are sure of, based on the brief and style guide provided.
- Comments for areas that need the document owner to review more deeply.
Our editors make 60 edits on average and leave 1-2 comments per 1,000 words edited. We only leave comments when we’re not sure about an edit, and the writer needs to have a look at it.
Once the editor is finished, they send the document to our QA, which is run by our Lead Editors. The Lead Editor then reviews the editor’s work by accepting all of the suggested edits, fixing any formatting issues caused by editing (which are common), and returning the document to the customer while also providing feedback to the editor.
How to Leave A Comment in Google Docs
Since we mentioned Comments, let’s quickly talk about how to leave a comment in Google Docs.
Similar to Suggestions, Comments appear on the right side of the document. Unlike Suggestions, you are able to write whatever you want.
Similar to Suggestions, Comments can be resolved using the Check ✔️ option.
So, how do you leave a Comment? There are two ways. Both work after you’ve highlighted the text you want to comment on.
- Keyboard shortcuts (CMD + Option + M on Mac, Ctrl + Alt + M on Windows)
- Insert -> Comment.
I prefer the shortcut method because it’s faster, but here’s where you can find the Comment link under the “Insert” navigation menu:

Here’s how a Comment looks:

Here’s how you Resolve, Delete, Edit, React, or Link To an individual comment:

Editing Content in Google Docs? We Can Help.
If you’re producing and editing 10,000+ words (~6 articles) per month and find that the workload is increasing and it’s taking longer than you’d like to publish, we can help.
Our team of 12+ professional editors has edited 11,200,000+ words, mainly in Google Docs, for customers producing articles and other materials. They’d love to help you also.