Overview
Tracked changes only records what someone chooses to record. A document can come back with tracking turned off, with some edits made before tracking was turned on, or with changes already accepted. Reading the returned draft will not tell you what is different.
The reliable check is to compare the version you sent against the version that came back. A comparison works from the content of the two documents. It does not depend on tracked changes having been used, so it shows every difference between them.
Steps
- Find the exact version you sent. The comparison is only as good as its starting point, so use the file that went out, not a later working copy.
- Compare it against the version that came back:
- In the Version Story app: add both files to a project as versions and connect them. See Compare Documents.
- In Claude or ChatGPT: attach both files and ask for a comparison. See Compare Documents in Claude or Compare Documents in ChatGPT.
- Review the redline. Every insertion, deletion, and moved passage is marked, whether or not it was tracked in the returned draft.
For long documents
Ask for a PDF of only the changed pages. In a long agreement where a handful of pages were touched, this gives you just those pages to review. In Claude or ChatGPT: "Give me a PDF with only the pages that changed."
When the returned draft is a PDF
A PDF carries no tracked changes at all. Compare it against your Word version in the same way. See Compare a Word Document to a PDF.
Keep the comparison
Each comparison is saved in your Version Story project alongside both versions, so the record of what changed at each turn of a negotiation stays in one place.