Earlier in this thread tens of responders described their serious problems with the Modern comments (MC). As there has been no reaction from Microsoft so far and new members in this discussion are repeatedly calling for help, I have summed up my and other’s observations and advice how to return to the traditional comments:
- practically every contributor in this thread complained about serious negative effects of MC on their work. They were users that obviously rely on the traditional comments tools in their roles as instructors, editors, accountants, teachers, lawyers etc. Those who do not use Word mainly in dynamic on-line cooperation directly sharing documents being developed but rather for more traditional work witch structured complex texts, in such cooperation with others that does not have to be of the “@mention” type
- many of them loudly asked for the possibility to return to the traditional comments
- some of us noted that the MC were enforced to users randomly and quietly; for example in my organization only a few of us were forced into MC, the rest of Word 365 users were left with the old comments - all having the same version of Word (16.06.13901.20366)!
- some of us reported a successful return to the old comments be reverting to an earlier version of Word 365. I have used this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841 and it has worked fine, though it requires some experimentation. I had to return to the version (13231.20110), TiogshiLaj reported success with returning to the version (13426.20322) from December 2020. After the revert it is necessary to lock the automatic Office updates in account settings!
I am pleasantly surprised that despite the difficulties and lost time that Microsoft caused to many the discussion in this thread has been so relatively polite and factual. I hope that reflecting this attitude Microsoft will finally also say something. Soon. Hopefully leaving the MC as an option only.
Microsoft