O365 (Word) - "Accept" Option Grayed Out

When markup is hidden from view, you can't accept individual changes. However, you should still be able to click Review > Accept > Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking. 

As you have noticed, the view options for markup only hides the markup temporarily. You can't control what other people see, if you send them the document.

The thing is, even without messing with the markup drop down, the "Accept" option is still grayed out no matter what. 

Is the document protected in some way?

Hi ArturoAvalos,

 

Thank you for querying in this forum. We do understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it. And we will try our best to help you.

 

According to your description, it seems that you cannot use Accept option and it is grayed out. At the same time, if you selected No Markup, it will still show markups after opening file. And even if you don’t mess with the markup drop down, this Accept option is still grayed out.

 

May I know if my understanding is right? If so, we have tested it on our side, if we selected No markup, it will not show any markups, and we can use Accept option.

Given this situation, we’d give you some suggestions below and hope that will help you:

1. As Stefan mentioned, we’d suggest you check if you have protected the document. You can go to Word > File > Info to check if you have protected the documents.
2. At the same time, we’d suggest you create a new document to check if the same problem will occur, if not, this issue may be related to specific document, we’d suggest you copy the content from problematic document to new document, then you can edit it again to check if the same problem will occur.

 

If the same problem still persists after trying the suggestions above, to better understand your situation, could you provide the information below?

1. Could you provide the Product Information and version of your Word? You can go to Word > File > Account and provide the screenshot of it. 
2. Do all files have the same problem? You can create a new document to check if the same problem will occur.
3. If it is convenient to you, could you provide the screenshot of this situation on that user’s Word?
4. You mentioned “One of the users discovered that”, does it mean that this issue only occurs on specific user?

 

Best Regards,

Sukie

Hi ArturoAvalos,

May I know if you have seen my reply? May I know if you still need help? If so, you can post back and we will try our best to help you.

Best Regards,

Sukie

My apologies for the late reply, I have been trying to get in touch with the two users who have been experiencing this issue but have not been successful. To my knowledge, one of the two users may accidentally set the document in question as protected so, I will find out as soon as I can

Thank You, 

Hi ArturoAvalos,

 

We appreciate that you posted back and shared the information with us.

 

Per your description, it seems that you know that one of users may protect the document accidentally, and you will find out.

If you have any updates, welcome to post back and share those information with us, and we will try our best to help you.

 

Best Regards,

Sukie

Thank you for understanding. I was finally able to have a troubleshooting session with a few users in need of this feature. So, it does not look like the file is protected but, I think there may be something else that could be resulting in the Accept button to not be accessible. When I hovered over the option, it gave me a support note which mentioned Unlocking Tracking. The note had 3 quick steps of instructions one of which mentioned, typing in a password. I tried typing in an easy password the users that require this document would remember but, the document said the password was incorrect. Could this be the cause of the issue? Opening the document does not prompt for a password but, trying to Unlock the Tracking does. I also asked who was the original Drafter of the document and the users I was contacting mentioned it was an employee who no longer works with my organization. Would we need to retrieve the password from them if that is what is causing this issue?

Hi ArturoAvalos,

 

Thank you for posting back again and sharing the detailed information with us.

 

Based on your description, it seems that this files is not protected and you have tested it, when you hovered over the Accept option, it gave you a support note which mentioned Unlocking Tracking. And you typed password and the password is incorrect. And only when you tried unlocking tracking the window will appear.

 

If my understanding is right, we have tested it on our side, we went to Word Review tab > Track Changes > Lock Tracking and typed password, Accept option is greyed out, as shown below:

 

 

If we want to use Accept option, we may need to type the password to unlock tracking. That may why you cannot use Accept option in this document. The only way we can think of is to contact the user who locked tracking to confirm the password to unlock it.

Or you can copy the content of this document to a new document, then you can continue to work in new document.

 

Thank you for your understanding!

 

Best Regards,

Sukie

Try the following: Create a new, blank document. Display the Insert File dialog box and insert the document which has Track Changes protection applied to it. This should circumvent the protection.

To display the Insert File dialog box, click the arrow on the Object button on the Insert tab, and then click Text from File.