How to turn off track changes and share function on word for MAC tried all the normal things

Question

thanks

it keeps tripping to the end of the file when I press the cursor

Answer 1

Two points which haven't been stated explicitly:

• The Share button always is blue. Its only purpose is to provide access to the sharing options. The color does not indicate that the document is being shared.
• The Document access mode button next to the Share button is blue if the document is in Reviewing or Viewing mode. Selecting Reviewing mode activates Track Changes & manually activating Track Changes switches the document to Reviewing mode which causes the button to turn blue.

Answer 2

hi Stefan I just thought that may be why it was doing it as its only started skipping since the track and share buttons are permanaelty blue and wont go off. thx

In Word, you should be able to accept all changes and stop the tracking in a document. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/track-changes-in-word-197ba630-0f5f-4a8e-9a77-3712475e806a#trackchanges=macos for instructions.

If you do that, does it improve the situation?

Of course, symptoms that you notice at about the same time aren't necessarily connected.

Answer 3

There have been some recent reports that Word for Mac skips to the end of the document (for example, see the thread at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5775439/). I don't believe anyone has mentioned the Track Changes feature in this context. Could you tell us more about the symptoms you have observed?

Answer 4

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your question. I understand how frustrating it is when Word for Mac continues to behave unexpectedly, especially when Track Changes and sharing options won’t fully turn off and the cursor keeps jumping to the end of the document whenever you try to move it.

This usually happens when the document is still locked in a tracked‑changes state, when the file is stored in a shared or protected location such as OneDrive or SharePoint, or when the Word for Mac preferences file becomes corrupted, causing the cursor to auto‑scroll or snap to the end of the file.

The best resolution is to confirm that Track Changes is turned off in the Review tab, check whether the document is marked as protected or shared, save a local copy outside of cloud storage, and restart Word for Mac to rebuild its editing state, because this clears most layout or navigation glitches. If Word continues jumping to the end of the file, you may also need to reset Word’s preferences or open the document in Safe Mode to rule out a formatting or compatibility issue causing the cursor behavior.

May I ask whether this happens in all documents or only in one specific file, and whether the file is stored locally or synced from OneDrive? Please let me know when you can, and I’ll be happy to help you move forward.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best Regards,

Noel

Answer 5

To stop Track Changes and fix the cursor jumping issue in Word for Mac, use these steps in order:

1. Turn off Track Changes
   1. On the ribbon, go to Review.
   2. Select Track Changes so it is no longer highlighted.
   3. If you see options like For Everyone / Just Mine, make sure Track Changes is toggled off (click it again to turn it off).
2. If Track Changes will not turn off, check if tracking is locked Locking Track Changes with a password prevents turning it off and prevents accepting/rejecting changes.
   • On Windows this is done via Protect > Protect Document with a password; on Mac, if a similar protection is enabled, Track Changes cannot be turned off until the protection is removed with the correct password.
3. Remove existing tracked changes (so the cursor stops jumping to each change) Word can move the cursor to each tracked change when reviewing, which can feel like it “trips to the end of the file.” Accepting or rejecting all changes clears this behavior.
   1. On the Review tab, use Accept or Reject to step through changes one by one, or
   2. Use the Accept drop-down and choose Accept All Changes (or Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking), or
   3. Use the Reject drop-down and choose Reject All Changes.
4. Verify markup view
   1. On the Review tab, choose Markup view (or Tracking view options).
   2. Select Simple Markup or No Markup so that changes are not constantly shown inline in a way that makes the cursor appear to jump.

After Track Changes is off and all existing changes are accepted or rejected, the cursor should move normally instead of jumping to the end or to the next change.

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References:

• Track changes in Word
• Use a screen reader to track and review changes in a document in Word
• Accept or reject tracked changes in Word