Comments are a great way to leave notes to yourself or other editors in Microsoft Word. You can suggest edits on the text, point out a phrase you like, or just leave a friendly message.
We’re going to show you how to insert comments in Word. Then, we’ll show you how to Remove Comments in Word, plus how comments left by tracked changes can also be deleted.
How to Insert Comments in Microsoft Word
Before we cover how to delete comments in Word, let’s quickly go over how to insert comments.
First, highlight the text that you want to comment on. Alternatively, leave your text cursor where you want the comment to appear.
Next, right click and choose New Comment. You can also go to the Review tab in the ribbon and click New Comment (or click Ink Comment, if you want to handwrite it.)
This will create a call-out at the side of your document where you can leave a note to yourself or others—perhaps flagging that a sentence is poorly phrased or information needs fact checking. The comment will automatically attach your name and the time.
You can easily edit a previous comment or click Reply on it to leave a response.
Tips on Using Comments in Microsoft Word
You can format the text in comments like you would with regular text in Word, though not everything will work. For example, you can bold or italicize the text, or change its font or color. You can’t change its size or alignment.
You can also insert images through Insert > Pictures, though the sidebar size is fixed so you will need to resize larger images for all of it to be visible.
Also, you can change the name and initials that appear on the comment. To do this, go to File > Options and make the adjustments underneath the Personalize your copy of Microsoft Word section.
How to Remove Comments in Microsoft Word
When a comment is finished with, you can hide it, resolve it, or delete it:
- Hiding comments will remove all the comments from view, though they still technically exist on the document.
- Resolving comments will fade them out, but they’re still immediately visible.
- Deleting comments will remove them entirely.
The former two options are best for when you want to preserve a record, while the latter is best when you want to delete unimportant notes or if the document is being shared in a final form.
A quick way to move between comments can be found on the Review ribbon tab. In the Comments section, click Previous and Next to cycle through.
1. How to Hide Comments in Microsoft Word
You can hide all comments, which in turn will hide the review sidebar (providing it contains nothing else like tracked changes, which we discuss later.)
To do so, go to the Review tab of the ribbon, click Show Markup and untick Comments.
You can make comments visible again by repeating this action.
Bear in mind that this doesn’t delete the comments, even if you save the document when they’re not visible. It’s simply a way of temporarily tidying up the document when you don’t need to see the comments.
2. How to Resolve Comments in Microsoft Word
Click the comment that you wish to resolve and click Resolve. This will then fade the entire comment out. Click Reopen to reverse that.
You can also resolve individual replies. To do this, right click the reply and click Resolve Comment. Note that resolving the highest comment in the hierarchy will also resolve everything beneath it.
To reverse this action, right click the reply and click Reopen comment.
3. How to Delete Comments in Microsoft Word
Right click the comment that you wish to delete and click Delete Comment.
You can also delete individual replies with the same method, but be aware that deleting the highest comment in the hierarchy will also delete everything beneath it.
An alternate deletion method is to click the comment, go to Review on the ribbon, then click Delete within the Comments section.
If you want to delete every single comment in the Word file, click the dropdown arrow on the Delete button and click Delete All Comments in Document.
Once a comment is deleted, it’s removed from the document permanently. The only way to bring it back is by pressing Ctrl + Z for Undo, if you haven’t closed the document.
How to Manage Tracked Changes in Microsoft Word
Track Changes is a great Microsoft Word feature that allows editors to easily see what has been chopped and changed between revisions.
If your document is using Track Changes, you might see notes automatically appearing at the side when the formatting of the text is adjusted. Confusingly, despite similar appearance, these are not the same as comments and you can’t remove track changes the same way.
If you want to temporarily hide these notes, click Review on the ribbon and change the Display for Review dropdown to Simple Markup or No Markup.
Alternatively, you can approve the change that the note is referring to. This will simultaneously remove the note. To do this, right click the note—you will see by the dotted line and the highlight what text is being referred to—and click Accept Format Change (or reject, if you want to reverse it.)
You can also manage this from the Review ribbon. On the Changes section, use the Accept dropdown and click Accept All Changes.
At any time you can click Track Changes on the same ribbon tab to enable or disable the tracking.
Word Features for an Easy Life
Now you know all about the comment feature and how to remove comments in Word with ease. It’s only a few clicks but it makes a lot of difference to team productivity when you know how to work with comments.
With that mastered, why not learn even more about Word? We’ve got you covered with hidden Word features to make your life easier.
Read the full article: How to Remove Comments and Accept All Changes in Word
This post first appeared on MakeUseOf - Technology, Simplified, please read the originial post: here
