How do I get balloon commenting on the right side of the page?

Use Review > Show Comments > Contextual. This places cards in the right margin beside the text; List view places all comments in the far-right pane. To write, select the text or anchor, choose Review > New Comment, type in the card, select Post or press Command+Enter. If editing fails, ensure the document is in Editing mode and is not read-only or protected. You may reply to others, but modern comments do not let you edit their text.

Modern comments have no font-size setting, and document zoom may not enlarge cards. Use macOS display scaling or Accessibility Zoom.

If your build shows the option, open Word > Preferences > General, clear Enable modern comments, and restart Word. This restores legacy comments temporarily; Microsoft says the option will be removed. Comments do not require Copilot. For confidential documents, verify the file's storage location, sharing permissions, and organizational policy separately.