Attaching your comments to particular parts of a document makes your feedback as an editor or proofreader far clearer. If another person is commenting on the document, replying to their comments allows you to have a discussion, even when you’re not all in the document at exactly the same time.

The modern-day comments experience in Word sets the stage for deeper collaboration by your team and facilitates features such as @mention notifications. The modern comment function aligns the commenting experience across Word platforms as well as other Office apps, in particular Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The capability to include comments in Microsoft Word documents is one of the program’s most helpful features. Here is how to add in a new comment on a Microsoft Word document.

In order to add a comment to a Word document:

• Highlight the copy that you would like to comment on.
• On the ribbon, navigate to the Review tab and choose New Comment.
• Type in your comment into the field that appears in the right margin. It contains your name and a timestamp which is visible to others.
• To edit your comment, click in the comment box and make the alteration.
• Click Ctrl + Enter to post the comment.

Collaborators utilising Word Online with an Enterprise licence can assign tasks by prefacing the person’s name with the @ symbol. Just enter the @ character and the first couple of letters of the person’s name. Word will give you an AutoComplete list.

When you assign the task, the assignee will get an email with a link to the particular task. If that individual doesn’t have permission to view the document, you will get an email asking to give permission to the assignee. The assignee can even reallocate the task. Regrettably, if you add a task in Word Online, you won’t see it once you open the document in the desktop.

When you add a comment in a Microsoft Word document, you’ll see it appear in the right-hand-side margin as close to the insertion point in the text as you possibly can. In this view, all active comments are observable in context. When you select a comment, a border will appear around it and its position is nearer to the page. This contextual view will hide all resolved comments so you can focus on active comments. In order to view all comments, including all resolved comments, open the Comments pane via clicking Comments in the ribbon.

You are able to interact with comments in the Comments pane in the same way as you would in the contextual view. If you reopen a resolved comment, it will again be visible in the contextual view. You will be able to move between the different views anytime by clicking Comments in the right corner of the ribbon

When you start a comment thread inside a Microsoft Word document, you are able to choose to delete, hide, print, or respond to it.

Delete A Comment

In order to delete a comment, right-click on it and select Delete Comment. Or choose the comment and, in the Review pane, choose Delete Comment.

Hide All Comments

In order to hide a document’s comments, go to the Review tab, choose the Show Markup drop-down arrow and then uncheck Comments.

To hide current comments provisionally in Word 2016 and Word 2013, select No Markup in the Display for Review box.

Reply To Comments

In order to reply to a comment, choose the Reply icon underneath the comment or – alternatively – right-click the comment and choose Reply to Comment.

Print The Document Without Comments

To print the document without comments, go to the Review tab and select No Markup. Then, print the document as you ordinarily would.

Comments in Microsoft Word are an essential tool that any editor, as well as editing client, needs to know about. Want to find out more? Follow this link.