How to Track Changes in PDF? Automatically and Manually

If you often work with PDFs, such as for a project for school or on your team at work, then it's important to understand how to track changes in a PDF.

Tracking changes in a PDF makes communication easier among members of a group because you know exactly who made what changes. Tracking changes in a PDF also makes it very clear to see what revisions have been made and what revisions still need to be made. Tracking PDF changes also helps to maintain different versions of a PDF, in case you need to revert back to a previous version.

In this article, we'll discuss how to track changes in a PDF, both automatically and manually, including some frequently asked questions about tracking changes in a PDF.

Part 1. How to Track Changes on PDF Manually with UPDF?

You do not need to purchase a tool or software specifically for tracking PDF changes. Your best option is to choose a PDF editor that already has all of the PDF handing features that you need, including tracking features. We highly recommend using UPDF for all of your PDF requirements.

If you need to track changes in a PDF with customized settings and add changes manually, you can use UPDF to do this with UPDF's editing and annotating features. It's very simple to track changes in a PDF with UPDF.

Click the button below to download UPDF so that you can follow along with the tutorial on how to manually track PDF changes with UPDF!

Step 1 - Annotate PDF

Open your PDF in UPDF, and click "Comment" on the left side to open the annotation tools. With these annotation tools, you can track any changes to the PDF. Select the "Strikethrough" tool and strike the content that you want to remove. You can do this as many times as needed.

Step 2 - Edit PDF

From the left side, select "Edit PDF". From here, you can edit the PDF and insert any new content to replace the content that you struck. Do this for any strikethroughs that you created.

Step 3 - Track Changes

In order to track that you made these changes, you can go back to the annotation tools on the left side. Select "Comment" > "Underline". Then, underline all of the new text that you have added to your PDF. This shows what information you have edited, and what the new text is. You can also customize the color of your strikethrough or underline for everyone on your team so  you can keep track of who made each edit.

Step 4 - Delete Old Content

Once everyone on your team has reviewed the tracked changes, you can delete the old content with the strikethrough. While in the annotation tools, select the strikethrough and then the trash can icon to delete it. Then do the same for the underline on the new content. Then click on "Edit PDF" from the left, and delete the content that had the strikethrough.

Now you should be left only with the updated content. Click on "Save as Other" on the right side, and save your PDF.

Besides manually tracking changes in a PDF, UPDF has many other features. With UPDF you can perform OCR to make scanned images and text into editable text, add security features like password protection, batch process many PDFs at one time, and use AI to translate, explain, summarize, and generate content for your PDFs.

You can watch the below video to learn more about UPDF.

Ready to track changes in UPDF? Click the button below to download UPDF and start your free trial. Once you've tried all of UPDF's amazing features, make sure to buy a perpetual license for a very affordable cost!

Part 2. How to Track Changes in PDF Automatically with Tungsten Power PDF？

If you need to automatically track changes in a PDF, you can use Tungsten Power PDF editor. With Tungsten Power PDF editor, you can make suggested changes to a PDF. As you do this, the PDF editor will automatically track these changes, and when you're done you can choose to accept whichever markups are needed.

Tungsten Power PDF is a paid tool, but it has a 14 day free trial version. You can read this article to see how to download the free trial and start editing. Follow the steps below to track changes in a PDF using Tungsten Power PDF.

Step 1 - Convert PDF to Editable

After downloading Tungsten Power PDF for your free trial, click "Edit" > "Convert to Editable". Select "Document" and click "Convert".

Step 2 - Track Changes

Click on "Track", and then select "Track Changes". Now as you make edits to the document, your changes will be tracked so you can revert to a previous version of the PDF as needed.

Step 3 - Accept or Reject Changes

After making any changes or edits to your PDF, you can then accept or reject the changes. When you are done, you can save your PDF by clicking "File" > "Save As".

Part 3. How to Track Changes in PDF Automatically With Word?

If you already have Microsoft Word, you can easily and automatically track any changes made to a PDF. Follow the steps below to complete this process.

Step 1 - Open PDF

Open Word and click "File" > "Open". Select the PDF that you want to track changes it. When it opens in Word, you can edit the document.

Step 2 - Track Changes

Select "Review" and then choose the "Track Changes" button. From here, you can make any markups or edits that you need and Word will automatically keep track of the edits.

Step 3 - Save as PDF

Now you can save the Word document with the tracked changes as a PDF. To do this, select "File" > "Save As" > "Browse". You can rename your PDF if needed, and then choose "PDF" from the file type dropdown menu.

Final Words

It is very easy to track changes in PDF, whether you want to track changes manually with UPDF, or automatically with Tungsten Power PDF or Microsoft Word. Each method has their benefit, so now that you know the steps for a few different ways to track PDFs, you can select the method and tool that works best for you.

However, we recommend using UPDF not just for tracking PDF changes, but for all of your PDF requirements, including editing, annotating, securing, organizing, and reading PDFs. If you want to try tracking PDF changes with UPDF, click the button below to download UPDF and start your free trial!