What “stet” means, now that we track changes

Stet is Latin for “let it stand”. On a proof it tells the printer to ignore a correction and keep the words as they were. Most of us still use it every week, under another name.

On paper

An editor strikes out a word and writes another above it. The author disagrees. Rather than rubbing anything out, they put a row of dots under the original words and write stet in the margin, often ringed.¹ The original stands; the correction is cancelled, and anyone reading the proof can see both what was suggested and what was decided.

On screen

Track changes is the same conversation. An edit is shown, not made: struck-through words, inserted words, a name in the margin. When the author chooses Reject change, they’re writing stet. The suggestion is undone and the original stands, and the history shows that it was a choice.

That’s why tracked changes matter in a word processor. They keep the author in charge of their own words. Stetley Docs keeps tracked changes and comments when it opens and saves a Word file, so the conversation survives the trip.

Why the name

Software tends to edit your work for you: a redesign you didn’t ask for, a feature in the way, a page that takes longer to open every year. Stetley takes its name from the mark that says no to all that. Your work stays as you made it.

For the full story of the mark, from early printers to the courts, read Stet: let it stand and a short history of proofreading.

Stetley Docs · More from the journal

Published 1 November 2026.