Browse a Word Document by Edits

If you're like I am, then you spend more time than you'd care to admit drafting and editing text in Microsoft Word documents. And, as you already know, there are a number of ways to navigate through a document. Word allows us to browse by page or to find specific text. You might be surprised to know that you can also browse by edit points within a document.

Why Do I Care About This?

Now you might be asking, "Why do I care about this?" If you work on short documents, then this feature isn't really that useful. But, in DOUSes — documents of unusual size — it becomes invaluable, fast.

How it Works

Word keeps track of the last three edit points within a working document. Of course, this isn't so helpful when drafting from beginning to end. It becomes useful during the revision phase of your file. For example, if you make an edit on page 10, then jump back to page 2 and make a correction, and stop at page 25 to type a bit more, Word remembers. And that's when things begin to get fun.

Browse by Edit Points

There's a handy keyboard shortcut — Shift-F5 — that moves the cursor back through the last three edit points. Press once to go move back to the last point. Press again to jump to the seceond-to-last point. Press a third time to go to the third-to-last point. A fourth press returns you to where you were before you started jumping around in the doc.

Word also has a way to browse edits through the use of Advanced Find, but I find the keyboard shortcut works faster.

Do you have any tips? Send them along or share them here.