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
- Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but if you click the arrow on the Show Comments Button it pulls up two options, one is contextual and the other is list. Contextual keeps them where they showed up and not in the new format where you can be anywhere in the document and have it show comments from a different part of the document.
- Just in case anyone still struggling with this—and I totally agree with all comments on this, it's a crazy feature which doubles the time it takes for me to edit/feed back on my clients/students' work (I'm an editor and university tutor), *if you're using a Mac* there's a super simple way to resolve—you simply go into MS Word, Word tab, Preferences tab, General, and unclick Enable Modern Comments.
Be warned though; if you do this after having used Modern Comments on a file, you will lose all your comments, so copy and paste them into a separate file first. You won't lose comments made on files in the old format (phew). So delighted there's such a simple fix! (Doesn't usually work this way for Mac users!)- This worked for me! And the existing comments were not deleted. Thank you!
Disabling or enabling modern comments shouldn't delete any existing comments. If that happens in your version of Word, you should report it to Microsoft via the Feedback facility.
OK, I have been reading through eight pages of complaints about this new Modern Comments feature in Word. Does Microsoft just ignore complaints about the dysfunctionality of its products that are based on real-world experiences of its users? Surely there is someone who can correct this egregious design error and restore comments to its original format for those who want actually to get some work done!
- Use the "Feedback" facility under the Help tab of the ribbon. The more people that do that, the more likely it is that some action will be taken.
- The new or modern comments is seriously affecting work efficiency and increasing the amount of my time taken leave comments. In long reports where there could be up to 50 comments, having to click ctrl+enter each time is extremely inefficient.
@vinchama20gmailcom Please do not spam the community by using the Reply facility to ask the same question multiple times. I have provided the information you require in response to one of the instances. You should have used the "Start a New Discussion" facility to ask your question
- hello all, where can i grab practice files for MS Word Beginner, advanced and Expert Level by Dan McAllister as Tutor
I agree 100% with every critique by chiara369. I loathe modern comments. Hard to pick out a chief complaint among the myriad, but I'll go with their second comment - the comment bubbles are so clunky and slow to open that the first few letters I type always end up in the manuscript proper - and I often fail to notice. Who knows how many of these rogue letters are ending up in my copy.
Not being able to just hit "escape" to exit a comment bubble is another huge issue.
I've had some bugs with ctrl-Z and modern comments as well.
Overall this is costing me so much editing time - and money! Please at least give us the option to use traditional comments. Why has MS tried to fix what absolutely was not broken!
I don't want to "start a conversation;" I just want to do my darn work. This now requires more steps than before and if I'm not careful it puts an extra space in the main body of my text. If I forget to post it properly, it swings back to that comment when I try to enter a new one. My document is pushing 900 pages and that boomeranging is an absolute nightmare.
Since this update there have been multiple problems with Word. The last thing I had to have repaired was the "Read Aloud" function which went buggy. I lost a day of paid work while their tech reinstalled Office 365 and it's still not right.
I would appreciate the choice of going back to the previous version where things mostly worked... and when they didn't at least I knew how to get around it.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE try to recognize that not everybody uses Word like an App, or thinks Cloud-based docs are awesome. Some people are working on *actual* books. With footnotes. And endnotes. And indexes. And tables of contents. I can hear you muttering "okay, boomer" under your breath, but all this "modernizing" is screwing us up."Start a conversation" is certainly misleading. It only means that, in addition to typing comment text, you can use @mentions to notify other people in the same organization.
Regarding the overall design of comments, be sure to post feedback to Microsoft; for instructions, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11.
Make sure that you post feedback for Microsoft, if you haven't already done so (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11).
- Yes - the Word team clearly did not actually talk to any iusers before making this radical change. I use comments in a critique group for several novelists. What was simple in the past is now a nightmare. I am currently working on a fix at least for my group's use - will make it public on github - at least good enough for geeks.
- That would be awesome! Nearly everyday I struggle with the "modern" comments in WORD at work and it makes me grumpy!
