Microsoft
I'm glad you tried the macro and got it working somewhat. I hope others will try it too so that we get different testers on different systems to then troubleshoot some of these subsequent issues with the macro approach.
Yes, when you use the macro, it creates a new document with an automatic name. You have to save it and type in the new name. It's annoying, but you can go to the Save menu and click on the name of the original file and it will copy that name. I usually add a "_1" after it so as to have an original in case of problems.
Yes, the Show/Hide comments button will be greyed out but you can show/hide comments by clicking on the Show Markup button in the Review tab and selecting Comments from the drop-down list that appears. That should turn them on and off. Let me know if it doesn't and I'll see if I can figure out why.
For the spellcheck in comments, that's strange. I've just noticed that, and you're right. Although there is a still a modicum of automatic fixing of errors as I type, the spellchecker is not working fully in comments. I'll have to investigate that and see if there's a solution.
For the manipulation of text, that one is odd because when I create a comment after applying the macro, I can select a piece of text in the macro, go to the font selector and change it to another font and it works fine. It works as well with changing color, strikethrough, bold and italics, and adding superscript or subscript, but not changing font size, but I don't remember if you could do that in the old comments. Can you try these font changes and tell me which ones work for you and which ones don't?
To add the macro to your ribbon as a button, follow these steps (it might seem like a lot of steps, but they're fairly simple to follow):
1. In the Ribbon, click on Review to go to the Review tab.
2. Right click (left click if you are a left-hand mouse user) in an empty space on the Ribbon (e.g., in the space to the left of the "Comments" subtitle.
3. Select Customize the Ribbon...
4. Click on the pop-down menu below Choose commands from:
5. Select Macros (a list of macros should appear, including the SwapWords macro. If you don't see the macro in the list, stop here, let me know and I'll see if there is a solution).
6. In the list of tabs in the right column below Customize the Ribbon, click on Review
7. Click on the + button to the left of Review to open up the list of groups in the Review tab.
8. Click once on the Comments group in the list of groups that appears.
9. Click on the New Group button below the list of tabs. A "New Group (Custom)" listing will appear.
10. Click on the Rename... button.
11. Type in "Gimme Back my Comments" (or whatever name you like. You can even select an icon if you want).
12. Click OK
13. Click on the SwapWords macro in the list on the left.
14.. Click on the Add >> button in between the two lists.
15. Click on the Rename... button.
16. Type in "Old Comments" (or whatever name you like. You can even select an icon if you want).
17. Click OK
18. Click OK in the Word Options window.
You're done! You should now have a new group in your Review tab with a button called "Old Comments" (or whatever you called it). New buttons can only be added to custom groups, so that's why we had to create a new group rather than adding it to an existing one.
Let me know if any of the steps got confusing and I'll try to explain it more clearly.
