The Accidental Suggestion
Google Docs features a powerful collaboration tool called “Suggesting” mode (similar to “Track Changes” in Microsoft Word). When this mode is active, anything you type appears in green text, and anything you delete gets crossed out, creating a proposed edit that the document owner must approve or reject.
If you have “Commenter” access to a document, Google Docs automatically forces you into Suggesting mode. However, even if you are the document owner with full editing rights, you can easily click the wrong button and accidentally switch your default view from “Editing” to “Suggesting.” If you find yourself suddenly typing green text and generating comment bubbles instead of just writing normally, you need to switch your mode back.
How to Turn Off Suggesting Mode
You can toggle back to standard editing mode directly from the toolbar.
- Open your web browser and navigate to the open document in Google Docs where you are seeing green text.
- Look at the very far right side of the main formatting toolbar (the bar with the Bold, Italic, and font options).
- You will see a button that says Suggesting (it will likely have a green pencil icon next to it).
- Click on the “Suggesting” button.
- A small dropdown menu will appear. Select the top option: Editing (it has a blue pencil icon).
The button will change to say “Editing.” Any text you type from this point forward will be standard, permanent text, and deleting words will instantly remove them from the page without creating a review bubble. If you need to clean up the green suggestions you already accidentally made, you will need to click the checkmark on each individual comment bubble to accept them into the final document.