How to use the docx comments and tracked changes extractor
- Choose a Word document (.docx). Older .doc files are not read.
- Read the counts of comments, replies, insertions, deletions, moves and formatting changes, and the number of items per author.
- Use the Type and Author filters to narrow the list. Each row shows the type, author, date, the text and the sentence it sits in.
- Choose Download .csv to save the filtered list, or Copy summary to paste it into an email.
Where Word keeps these records
Comments are stored in their own part of the file, with an author, a date and initials, and a marker in the main text shows where each one is anchored. A second part records replies and whether a comment thread is marked as done. Tracked changes are stored inside the text itself: an insertion wraps the new text, a deletion wraps the removed text, and a move records the same text as removed in one place and added in another. Formatting changes, such as making a word bold, are stored as property changes. Headers, footers and notes can contain changes too, and are included.
This tool reads those records and lists them with the sentence they belong to, shown as the paragraph would read with all changes accepted. A paragraph mark or table row that was inserted shows as a short note, since it has no text.
A worked example
A test document has 10 records: 2 comments, 1 reply, 3 insertions (one of them an inserted paragraph mark), 1 deletion, 1 move from, 1 move to and 1 formatting change. The first insertion, "quick brown", was made by Ann Lee on 2026-03-05 at 14:22 and sits in the sentence "The quick brown fox leaps over the lazy dog." The first comment is resolved and anchored on "lazy dog", and a reply by Bob Ray belongs to Ann Lee's comment. The counts match an independent count of the XML elements.
Word may group neighboring changes by one author differently in its review pane, so counts of stored records can differ from the pane. For the plain text of a document, use the DOCX text extractor. To compare two versions of a PDF, the compare PDF tool shows changes in text, and the office media extractor pulls out pictures.
Assumptions and limits
- The document is a .docx file that is not encrypted. Password-protected documents cannot be read.
- Comments inside text boxes or content controls are listed, but the sentence shown may be empty.
- Dates are shown as written in the file, in the time zone of the author.
- Up to 500 rows are shown on the page; the CSV file holds the full filtered list.
Frequently asked questions
Does this show all authors, even those who left?
It shows every author name stored in the file, as typed when each change or comment was made. A name that was changed later in Word is not updated in old records.
Why is a deleted word shown in the text column?
For a deletion, the text column holds the removed text, so you can see what was cut. The sentence column shows the paragraph as it reads with the changes accepted, without the removed words.
Can I accept or reject changes here?
No. The tool reads and lists the changes and never writes to the document. Accept or reject them in Word.
What does resolved mean?
Word lets a person mark a comment thread as done. The tool reads that flag for comments and replies and shows Yes when the thread was resolved.