MicrosoftI just got this "added feature" today, and haven't had the pleasure of discovering all these "improvements" yet. I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread (thanks everyone!) so I can prepare myself for all the joy there is to come. Most of my time spent with comments is with writing groups where we critique each other's pieces. Changing how comments appear (now in a side bar), where you have to "open" each comment box in the text before you see the relationship with the actual comment in the side bar, is time-consuming and unproductive.
So two questions for Microsoft:
1) Why would you roll out this "upgrade" with little fanfare and without the option to continuing using the "Legacy" format? I can see where the new formatting may be better over time, but forcing people to immediately switch is not great customer service, and is not at all "transparent to the user." Can you provide us the option of using the Legacy format, at least for a period of time?
2) The new format looks a lot like Google's, and Google allows collaboration among writers/editors without having to be part of Google's ecosystem. The Legacy formatting in Word is superior to Google's for sharing my own comments without others necessarily joining in. But if Word is going to be so similar to Google, why would I want to continue to use (and pay for) Word?
