Turn on tracking to see who changed what
Suggestion mode is Google Docs' built-in change tracker. When it is on, every edit appears as a colored suggestion rather than a direct change to the document. You can see who made each suggestion, when they made it, and accept or reject it one at a time.
To turn on Suggestion mode, click the pencil icon in the top right corner of your document. A menu appears with three options: Editing, Suggesting, and Viewing. Select Suggesting. From that moment forward, any text you add, delete, or modify will show up as a suggestion instead of changing the document directly.
When other people have Suggestion mode on and edit your document, their changes appear in different colors — Google Docs assigns each person a unique color so you can tell who did what. Hover over any suggestion to see the person's name and the exact time they made the change.
Key Takeaways
- Suggestion mode is the main way to track changes in Google Docs; turn it on by clicking the pencil icon and selecting Suggesting.
- Each person editing in Suggestion mode gets a different color, so you can see at a glance who made which changes.
- You can accept or reject suggestions one at a time, or accept all suggestions at once using the menu at the top of the document.
- Version history shows a complete record of every change made to the document, including who made it and when, even if suggestions were already accepted.
- Suggestion mode works the same way whether you are editing alone or sharing the document with others.
Accept or reject individual suggestions
Once suggestions are in the document, you can deal with them one at a time. Click on any suggestion — it will highlight in its assigned color. A small menu appears next to it with two buttons: a checkmark to accept the suggestion, and an X to reject it.
When you click the checkmark, the suggestion becomes a permanent part of the document. When you click the X, the document reverts to what it was before that suggestion was made. Either way, the suggestion disappears from the document once you decide.
If you want to leave a comment on a suggestion before deciding, click the speech bubble icon next to the checkmark and X buttons. This opens a comment box where you can ask the person who made the suggestion to explain their thinking, or note why you are rejecting it.
Accept or reject all suggestions at once
If you have many suggestions and want to deal with them all together, use the menu at the top of the document. Look for the icon that looks like a checkmark with a line through it — this is the Suggestion menu. Click it to see options for accepting or rejecting every suggestion in the document at once.
Be careful with this approach: there is no undo button once you accept all suggestions. If you are not sure about some of them, go through them individually instead. You can also use the left and right arrow buttons in the Suggestion menu to jump from one suggestion to the next without accepting or rejecting, so you can review them all before making a decision.
Check version history to see all changes
Version history is a separate record that shows every single change made to your document, whether suggestions were used or not. It captures the document at different points in time and shows you exactly what changed between each point.
To open version history, click File in the top left, then select Version history and then See version history. A panel opens on the right side of your screen showing a timeline of changes. Each entry shows the date, time, and the person who made the change. Click on any entry to see what the document looked like at that moment.
Version history is useful when you want to recover text that was deleted, see the full story of how a section evolved, or prove who changed something and when. Unlike suggestions, version history cannot be deleted or hidden — it is a permanent record as long as the document exists.
The difference between Suggestion mode and version history
Suggestion mode is for reviewing changes before they become final. Version history is for looking back at what changed after the fact. You can use both at the same time.
If you turn on Suggestion mode and someone edits the document, those edits appear as suggestions. If you then accept all the suggestions, they become permanent changes. Version history will still show that those changes happened and who made them, but they will no longer appear as suggestions in the document itself.
If you turn on Suggestion mode but then switch back to Editing mode without accepting or rejecting the suggestions, those suggestions disappear — but version history still has a record that they were made. This is why version history is the more complete record: it never forgets anything, while Suggestion mode only shows changes that have not yet been decided.
Share a document and track changes from multiple people
When you share a document with others, each person can turn on Suggestion mode on their own. Google Docs will assign each person a different color automatically, so you can see at a glance who suggested what.
To share your document, click the Share button in the top right corner. Enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite, choose whether they can edit, comment, or view only, and click Share. If you want them to use Suggestion mode, you may want to send them a message explaining that you are tracking changes and ask them to turn on Suggesting before they edit.
If someone edits in Editing mode instead of Suggesting mode, their changes go straight into the document without appearing as suggestions. Version history will still show what they changed, but you will not get the chance to review it first. For this reason, some teams ask everyone to use Suggestion mode by default when working on shared documents.
Resolve or delete suggestions
After you accept or reject a suggestion, it disappears from the document. But if you want to mark a suggestion as resolved without accepting or rejecting it — for example, if you discussed it in a comment and decided to leave it as-is — you can do that too.
Click on the suggestion, then look for the three-dot menu icon next to the checkmark and X buttons. Click it and select Resolve. The suggestion will be marked as resolved and moved to a separate section so it does not clutter your view of active suggestions. You can still see resolved suggestions if you want to review them later, but they are out of the way while you work through the rest.
If you want to delete a suggestion entirely, you can reject it (which reverts the document to its previous state) or accept it (which makes it permanent). There is no third option to simply erase a suggestion without changing the document. If you need to undo a change after accepting a suggestion, use version history to find the earlier version and copy the text you need.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I turn off Suggestion mode for just one person?
No. Suggestion mode is a setting for your own editing, not something you control for others. Each person in a shared document can choose whether to use Editing or Suggesting mode independently. If someone is editing in Editing mode and you want their changes tracked, ask them to switch to Suggesting mode themselves.
What happens to suggestions if I close the document without accepting or rejecting them?
The suggestions stay in the document. When you reopen it, they will still be there waiting for you to decide. Google Docs does not automatically accept or reject suggestions just because you closed the document.
Can I see who made a change if I only have version history, not Suggestion mode?
Yes. Version history shows the name of the person who made each change and the exact time they made it. Click on any entry in the version history timeline to see the document as it was at that moment, and you can compare it to the current version to see what changed.
If I accept a suggestion, can I undo it later?
You can use version history to go back to a moment before you accepted the suggestion, but you cannot undo the acceptance itself. Click File, then Version history, then See version history, find the version before you accepted the suggestion, and click it. Then click Restore this version to revert the entire document to that point in time.
Does Suggestion mode slow down Google Docs?
No. Suggestion mode has no noticeable effect on how fast Google Docs runs. It is simply a different way of recording changes, not a background process that uses extra resources.