Blog Post

Microsoft 365 Blog
6 MIN READ

Introducing Modern Comments in Microsoft Word

Katie Sullivan's avatar
Katie Sullivan
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Apr 09, 2021
Workplace collaboration is evolving—and so is Microsoft Word. Today, we're pleased to announce expanded availability of our new modern commenting experience across Word platforms.    Modern comme...
Updated Dec 17, 2021
Version 7.0
Christinecousin52's avatar
Christinecousin52
Brass Contributor
Oct 23, 2022

As an educator and consultant who constantly edits, gives feedback, and writes comments on papers and reports, I need to add my voice to all others who hate New Comments. Please make the option to disable New Comments permanent, not temporary.

 

There are too many irritating issues to list here (please refer to the previous 10 pages of user comments).

 

But my pet peeves are as follows.

  • Too many commands (many more than before) to post and close a comment and reply to one.
  • Too much vertical space taken up by the comment boxes.
  • Too much horizontal space taken up by two lanes of comments, one for edits and one for formatting. This further separates the edit comments from the text and makes t hard to read.
  • No line linking a comment to the highlighted text to which it applies. People have to click on the talk bubble to see the comment.
  • Having to click the pencil icon to edit text in a comment and then the check mark below the box for the edits to take. This takes WAY too much time. Text in comments should be edited just like normal text: insert cursor, type, and leave.
  • Inability to insert symbols in the comments (e. g., check marks come out as rectangles).
  • Annoying message: “This comment thread contains content that is not yet supported. Select it to review it in the Revisions pane.” Symbols like check marks have been supported for decades. This message appears every single time that a symbol is used, lengthening the edit comments vertically to beyond the page.
  • Annoying message: “Another comment is in progress.” Close it already! I need to be able to have several comments open at the same time and go from one to another.
  • Inability to copy and paste outside text into comments, even after clicking the pencil for editing.
  • inability to format the text in comments for font, size, italics, bold, and bullets. Can’t even insert a bullet from symbols to make bullets.

 

As many have said before, these changes seem to mimic the posting conventions of social media, away from serious editing work. Please consult the thousands of editors and other users of Track Changes before making changes that gum up the works.