How can authors change a component through personalization?

Personalization in Sitecore enables authors to customize content and structure based on specific user segments or individual users' behavior. The correct choice highlights that authors can change a component through several means, including altering its data source, hiding it, or swapping it with another component.

By changing the data source, authors can ensure that the component displays content tailored to the needs or interests of a specific audience, thereby enhancing user engagement. Hiding a component allows authors to remove elements from the user interface based on defined personalization rules, enabling a cleaner and more relevant experience for the end user. Additionally, exchanging a component for another can provide a completely different presentation or function better suited to the identified audience.

This flexibility is crucial for creating a dynamic and responsive experience in Sitecore, making it easier for authors to deliver targeted content without needing extensive coding or development support. The other options do not adequately reflect the full scope of changes authors can make through personalization, as they are either too limited in scope or rely on technical tools that wouldn't typically fall under the authorship capabilities within Sitecore's interface.