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How to accept all tracked changes and remove comments on a Mac
By Himanshu Ranjan · Updated 8 November 2026
Select the DOCX in Finder, open FileDial and choose Privacy › Accept changes and remove comments. It saves a new copy with every tracked insertion kept, deletions dropped and all comments removed. The original is untouched, and it runs offline.
The problem
A contract or report that has been through three reviewers is full of tracked insertions, strikethroughs and margin comments. Before it goes to a client, you want the clean version. Doing it in Word is a few clicks per file. Across a folder of documents it is a chore.
FileDial has two tools for this. Privacy › Accept changes and remove comments creates a new copy with every tracked insertion kept, deletions dropped and all comments removed. Privacy › Remove comments only creates a copy without comments while tracked changes stay as they are.
Steps
Decide which of the two tools matches your intent, then run it.
- Select the documents in Finder.
- Open the dial with the right Option key and go to Privacy.
- Pick Accept changes and remove comments for a final clean copy, or Remove comments only to keep review marks.
- Open the new copy, and scan for anything that depended on a comment, for example a note about a figure.
- Keep the original as the review record.
Which one to pick
Use the full tool when the document is final and you are comfortable that every change is accepted, including changes by people you have not checked. That is a decision, not a technicality: accepting all drops deletions without anyone reading them.
Use the comments-only tool when you want to share work in progress but without the internal chatter. Tracked changes stay, so the recipient can still see what moved.
- Final copy for a client: Accept changes and remove comments
- Draft for an outside reviewer: Remove comments only
- Author name still showing: also run Privacy › Remove metadata
Safety and privacy
Review marks are some of the most sensitive content in a document: you can see what was negotiated away and who commented. Putting such files into an online converter or cleaner means uploading them, and the FBI Denver Field Office warned in March 2025 that free online file converters are increasingly used to spread malware. A local tool avoids that.
FileDial writes a new copy and keeps the original, so you never lose the version with the history.
Built-in alternative
Word has a Review tab where Accept and Delete Comment commands work on the whole document. Pages can show and accept tracked changes in its Review options. Both are fine for one document and the exact menu labels vary by version, so check the app in front of you. For a batch, use the FileDial tools.
A worked example
Imagine a contract draft with eight tracked insertions, five deletions and a dozen comments from three people. Run Privacy › Accept changes and remove comments on a copy. The result keeps the eight insertions in the text, drops the five deleted passages, and has no comments. Open it and read it start to finish once, because accepting all means the text now reads exactly as a reviewer's final version would.
Compare it with the original using Combine › Compare two files, which writes a unified .diff and a side-by-side .html for documents. Reading the .html next to the original is a quick way to confirm that nothing important disappeared.
Common mistakes and when FileDial fits
Do not run the full tool on a document where someone's deletion is unresolved. Accepting all is blunt. Do not send the clean copy without checking for comment-dependent text, such as a bracketed note that only made sense with a comment. And do not overwrite your review history: keep the original with its marks.
If you only want comments gone, the safer tool is Privacy › Remove comments only, which leaves tracked changes as they are.
It is the right tool for finishing a pile of reviewed documents quickly and locally, especially when you need clean copies of many files. The original stays untouched, which makes it safe to run.
It is not the right tool when different parts need different decisions, such as accepting one reviewer's edits and rejecting another's. Do that review in Word or Pages, where you can accept and reject change by change. Once the decisions are made, the batch tool is a convenient final pass.
Running the full tool on a file where review is not finished is the main risk, because deletions are dropped without anyone reading them. The second is overlooking that the tool works on a copy, then sending the original by accident, so name the clean copy clearly. The third is not rereading: the accepted text can read oddly where a comment explained a gap. The fourth is forgetting metadata, which still shows author names until you run Privacy › Remove metadata.
Keep a habit: original, marked-up and clean copies in separate, clearly named files.
Questions
Does the original document keep its tracked changes?
Yes. FileDial writes a new copy and leaves the original untouched, so you keep the full review history in the original. Send the clean copy and file the marked-up one, and you can always go back to see who proposed what and when.
What happens to deletions and to comments?
With Privacy › Accept changes and remove comments, every tracked insertion is kept, tracked deletions are dropped and all comments are removed, as the tool's note says. Read the copy through afterwards, because the text now reads as the final accepted version.
Can I remove comments but keep the tracked changes visible?
Yes. Use Privacy › Remove comments only. It produces a copy without comments and leaves tracked changes exactly as they are, which suits sharing a draft with an outside reviewer who should still see what moved. It does not clear author names; Privacy › Remove metadata does.