Forum Discussion
Can I remove Modern Comments and revert back?
My Word (on Microsoft 365) has updated to Modern Comments. I have a number of problems with the useability of these comments, based on the way I have used them in the past (for context, I am an educator and primarily use them when marking student assignments).
The main issue is that autotext is no longer supported in a comment. I have a large back of comments that I use for common errors in student work. Some of these comments are up to a paragraph, or contain URLs to instructions for certain things. It's incredibly helpful to be able to insert these quickly and will increase my marking time substantially if I can't use them.
Comments are slow to open. If I open a comment using a keyboard shortcut (on a Windows computer) and start typing, the first one or two letters often gets inserted into the main text
They don't use the same autocorrect tools as the main text. My typing has evolved to use those features. Two capital letters at the start of a comment don't get corrected, and simple typos don't get corrected
There are more steps to use them than before. I don't share my documents, so being able to edit comments and post when they're finalised is not particularly useful for me, as no one else is looking at them until I send the document. However, I can't click out of it to finish, I have to click or ctrl+Enter to post. I also can't just click INTO it to edit, I have to click on more buttons.
It doesn't make sense to only be allowed to edit one comment at a time, particularly if the idea is to not post them until you're ready to share with others. Sometimes in the course of writing one comment, I want to comment on something else first and then come back to the previous comment. You're forced to finish one first, to the standard you're happy for others to see, defeating the purpose of not having to post until it's finished. Why not allow multiple to be in draft?
If I forget to post and try to type a new comment, it pulls me back to my previous comment and starts typing, making me lose my spot where I wanted the next comment
It has added an extra space to the side of the document, which wouldn't be an issue except that making any formatting changes under tracked change, which I often also do when marking assignments, goes into the ORIGINAL pane where comments use to be, widening the document even further (extra space for formatting, then another extra space for comments). My computer screen isn't large enough to cope with the extra width.
Once I post a comment, it's still selected. There have been a number of times I've posted a comment then tried to ctrl+F something in the document, but it won't respond to my ctrl+F. Not something that is necessarily a huge issue but it is annoying and I can't see the purpose for keeping a comment selected when it's posted and non-responsive.
Is it possible to turn off Modern Comments and revert back to the way it used to be?
Send feedback to Microsoft to let them know what you think about the so-called modern comments; for instructions, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11.
Microsoft's rationale about "posting" is mentioned in the support article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/using-modern-comments-in-word-edc6ae71-0a2d-49fe-8faa-986f1e48136a (which you may have seen already).
Finally, you should see an option to temporarily revert to the previous, more user-friendly interface at File > Options > General. Clear the check box next to "Enable modern comments."
220 Replies
- Thanks *chiara369* for starting this thread and for your meticulous comment. You have captured all the problems with this particular feature.
This update happened very unexpectedly for me: the computer crashed and upon restart, the comments first appeared to be gone altogether, then finally figured out how to get them back. It looks like that, on Mac, it's hard to view them in Print View -- have to toggle between Draft and Print views for the comments to become available.
And I agree with everyone here, the 'modern comments' are TERRIBLE. Microsoft keeps introducing "updates" for the sake of changing things without asking real users about functionality. The program is becoming more and more resource-heavy. Already in the previous version, the comments were worse than in previous versions. Sometimes it's good to keep things they way they are: car designers don't move the cupholder large enough to accommodate a bucket or make the steering wheel so thickly padded that the driver can put her hands around it.
I work as a copy-editor, and often leave lengthy comments. The "modern comments" are counterproductive: they take up too much space, as chiara369 explained...MICROSOFT, this is not a working document not a chat session! At least make this feature optional.
There are a lot of people like me who are condemned to using MS Word for work -- editors, copy-editors, publishers, writers... -- and the program, rather than becoming lighter and more user friendly, is getting Worse and worse.
This is just one in a series of very bad decisions and changes that neglect program functionality and user needs. Does anyone remember the nifty feature called "clipboard", for example, that allowed one to store up to 24 chunks of text in memory? How hard would it have been for Microsoft to maintain that? But no, it was too useful, so it had to go.
When the "ribbons" came in I was very unhappy because they take up so much space. I have never got used to them and learned to create small shortcuts in the top portion of the file bar. They used to appear in color, but then, surprise surprise, Microsoft turned them monochrome making them much less legible: for instance if you have the highlighter in the shortcuts you can't see what color it is.
Using Ms Word has been one long frustrating experience.
Now, the most recent update makes the program almost unusable on a 13 inch monitor. You need to have 27 inch monitor to view text at a comfortable size while accommodating all the other toolbars, sidebars, ribbons...
Can you make older versions available -- I would happily revert to Word 2011. Hello chiara369 and all others who don't like modern comments.
There seems to be a light at the end of this tunnel: please read update on
Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
"Message ID: MC277410
Published date: 8/11/2021
Category: Plan for change
Tags: Admin impact, Feature update, User impact[....]
[Key points]
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 76186 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=76186)Timing:Current Channel Preview, February 2021Current Channel, August 2021 (previously, June 2021)
Roll-out: User-level
Action: review and assess[...]
Note: Modern comments will temporarily include support for an opt-out toggle in Word’s Options dialog. This will allow users to revert the comments experience to our legacy comments model while we continue to iterate on the new experience and listen to customer feedback. If you use Group Policy to manage Office settings, there will be a policy setting that admins can use to turn off the ability for users to opt-out of Modern comments."
(highlights are mine)
- I'm a word for mac user. Can you tell me where Word's "Options dialog" is located? Can't find it, and I'm desperate! Thanks!
- File tab
- Lenka_Kerumova How is this good news? A temporary toggle to opt out? And after that?
I’ve got legacy comments back. Turned off auto updates. Fingers crossed that is enough. A bunch of new keyboard shortcuts? Nope. Don’t want anything to do with Modern Comments. It’s a disaster to my work flow. I’ve gotten more done this week than I have since this started. Lenka_Kerumova Isn't that such good news. My Word actually reverted back a few days ago without any warning, so I'm not quite sure whether I need to keep an eye out for it being changed back at some point...
It depends on which Channel you are on, but from what I've read so far, I don't think you need to worry about it.
Here is another article:
Introducing Modern Comments in Microsoft Word - Page 7 - Microsoft Tech Community
Just "save as" Word 1997-2003.doc - nice and modern, just a pre-smartphone/unsocial media solution.
- The registry "hack" posted in this thread works great ... I'm just curious what else I changed when I deleted all those keys ...
- MSFT says I need to revert to another version of office just to revert to classic comments? you have got to be kidding me.
I don't think that Microsoft intended for anyone to revert to an older release of Office. Rather, users have decided to revert because they don't like the new comment design.
I recommend that you post feedback on the comment feature. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11.
Hi Stefan_Blom
But that's my entire point...I am being told I need to revert to an old version of office, something no one wants to do, just to be able to escape the ridiculous new modern comments.
I am grading a set of advanced undergraduate papers and I estimate that Modern Comments has about doubled the time it takes to mark them up and more than doubled the frustration level. Maybe we need to offer MS a bitcoin as ransom to get them to give us an option to use our old comment system.
Dear Microsoft,
I've tried everything: Complaining. Explaining. Abstaining and waiting. Now I make a plea.
I have paid to use Office 365 which includes Word 2016. At this point, I believe I'm due a refund. The product I've been paying for no longer exists. The ease of working that comments provided (I am an editor and teacher) no longer exists. I have now finished fifteen pages in the time I would once have finished thirty.
You know all of the problems with Modern Comments (should you need clarification please read the many posts here. Check other social media, too.) so I won't elaborate further. I write to ask for a refund. The product I'm paying for is gone.
You have perverted a once useful office tool into another social media platform. I'm sure that most editors and teachers have no desire to 'start a conversation' because we work alone. Also, we look dopey when our comments contain spelling, capitalization, and other errors that were once auto-corrected based on self-created defaults. Modern comments is utterly disconnected from Word and therefore useless in many work environments.
You gave me no choice. This is wrong. Please contact me to arrange for my refund.
Thank you,
Frustrated, annoyed and cheated in Sydney,
Pamela
Sorry, you are not corresponding with Microsoft here. Had you read through this thread, you would know that.
See Modern Comments control! Screenshots for Windows and Mac
This is not the place to communicate your understandable frustration with Microsoft. They will never see it. Instead, use the Feedback mechanism. Send Feedback to MS Developers Send a frown and as many details as you care to share with them. They will see that. This is an independent user-to-user support forum. MS does not see anything you post here. The way to get their attention is through the feedback mechanisms.
- How do I give feedback on Microsoft Office?
- Word Feedback Portal – allows a public feedback that can be voted on
- Microsoft applications Feedback Portal (pick an application)
- Send Feedback to MS Developers
- Bonus Reading related to MS Feedback system
- PS You seem put out and I can understand why. Rest assured, I have read extensively through these posts. Ages ago.
I hate the new comment feature. Please go back. it is the worst update every Pamela-1
Hi Pamela,
You are writing to your fellow users here, not to Microsoft. What you say is well written but you are preaching to the choir!
This is not the place to get any changes made in Word nor the attention of developers at Microsoft. This is an independent user-to-user support forum. MS does not see anything you post here. The way to get their attention is through the feedback mechanisms.
- How do I give feedback on Microsoft Office?
- Word Feedback Portal – allows a public feedback that can be voted on
- Microsoft applications Feedback Portal (pick an application)
- Send Feedback to MS Developers
- Bonus Reading related to MS Feedback system
My personal preference is to use the Word Feedback Portal. If you do, please get a share link and post it here so that others seeing this thread can go there and vote and comment. If you search there, you will find many posts about Modern Comments. You can add your own and you can comment and vote on those that have already been made.
As for a refund...
Microsoft account | Billing and payments
You might also be able to roll back to a version prior to the introduction of "Modern Comments." To do that I suggest posting a separate question with details about your system because the ways to do this are very much dependent on the Office version and the operating system.
- Completely agree! "Modern" comments is HORRIBLE. It's like Microsoft looked at Google Docs and said, hey, why don't we make Word as terrible as that? Mission accomplished. PLEASE allow us to revert back.
perrindavis - I HATE THIS FEATURE!!! It doesn't allow me to press ENTER to finish the comment. So I have to keep toggling to the right to finish when I am editing and commenting on an essay.
Sounds like many of us are hoping for direction on how to revert back to the old comments functionality. Has anyone learned how this can be done?
At the moment, all you can do is revert to an older version of Office. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841.
- THIS IS A RIDICULOUS CHOICE.
MODERN COMMENTS IS A DISASTER for my work as an educator -- it negatively impacts my work flow by adding extra steps (consequently time) and removing several options that were available in legacy comments.
Autotext is no longer supported in a comment, which adds time as I must copy/paste from a separate document to insert frequently used comments.
The extra steps for inserting and editing each comment (usually many in each paper) slow down my work on HUNDREDS of papers a semester.
The addition of a separate comment column takes up valuable screen space and requires a reduction of document view that hampers readability and increases the likelihood of eye strain.
CUSTOMERS should have control and choice -- everyone's needs are not the same. Microsoft can easily make this an individual choice.
I agree with all of this 100%. I am having the same issues. Another issue is that the modern comments is not allowing formatting like superscript and subscript which is making it much harder, well impossible, to instruct typesetters on changes that require such formatting
Adam_Campbell Actually I've noticed that the formatting remains in the reviewing pane (first image below) but doesn't show up in the comment (second image)
- you are right, formatting and even inserted graphics are still retained in the hidden, and even can still be added to new comments in the reviewing pane, at least for now.
Apparently, those geniuses at MS figured simply referring to the reviewing pane to continue using previously simple functionality of comments is a perfectly sensible design soution, as you can read here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/using-modern-comments-in-word-edc6ae71-0a2d-49fe-8faa-986
Sure let's add yet another pane in addition to the nonsensical separation of margin and comments into two columns, and jump back and forth between them because you basically need the comments pane to navigate the reviewing pane. This mess is not convoluted enough yet and there's still too much space on the screen left for the aactul document. I'll gladly take that fancy new cinemascope ultrawide monitor if MS wants to gift me one!
Another issue is that, of course unless someone decides to open the reviewing pane on a whim, they'll never know what else is hidden in the comment...
At the moment, the only way seems to be rolling back to an older version of Word and to shut off updates entirely, unless enough voices make MS realise that perhaps giving users OPTIONS instead of arrogantly pressing them into disruptive surprises like this might be the right thing to do... (as if!)
I'll also direct your attention to another post in this community, where a couple of us voice our feedback since the celebratory introduction of ths "modern" feature for some time now. Might be worth a look, and an opportunity to pool criticism in one place. (I already recognised one or two names in here from there)
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/bc-p/2329433/emcs_t/S2h8ZW1haWx8dG9waWNfc3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ufEtPQzhFUktINVNHNlNCfDIzMjk0MzN8U1VCU0NSSVBUSU9OU3xoSw#M1742
