Forum Discussion
My comments in Word Online are not showing like I want
Hi,
can anyone help me, please?
So these are two documents that I created with Word 365 (offline), both around the same time.
Now, I added some comments and shared it with others via Onedrive.
Then I opened both documents via Word Online.
On the left document you can immediately see the comments right next to the document.
That's how I like it.
But on the other document, the comments are not shown, and only when I click on those tiny comment thumbnails markings next to the text, then on the right side a side panel with comments opens. But I prefer the single comments like on the left document.
Why is it that one document shows the comments different than the other one?
7 Replies
That_Sky, I had this problem, that I wanted to see the comments in the old way, not in a comment panel. I tried turning off the viewing of Formatting, and suddenly all of the comments showed up in context (close to and connected to the text).
Recent versions of Word will let you enable or disable the so-called modern comments to get some more view options. I am referring here to the full version (the desktop version) of Word running under Windows.
With modern comments, choose the Contextual view for comments. See the screen shot below.
With classic comments displayed (that is, if you clear the option "Enable modern comments" at File > Options > General), comments will be in the Markup area together with any tracked changes.
- I have a similar problem, and it showed up just a day or two ago and is affecting even documents I created in the past. Working with this new format of comments is inefficient and frustrating. I hope someone here knows how to return to showing comments in balloons.
If you are using the locally installed version of Word, make sure that your document is displayed in Print Layout view (on the View tab, click Print Layout). Also make sure that you have selected the "All Markup" view on the Display for Review drop down on the Review tab. See screen shot.
- If you have already selected these options and you are still not seeing what you want, you may have received a recent update for Microsoft 365 subscription which changes the look of comments. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/modern-comments-in-word-53d8b54e-5036-40f8-9a09-3271dea169ba.
In each document, look at the Comments section of the Review ribbon. What I believe you'll see is that in the document on the left, the Show Comments button is shaded (turned on); in the document on the right, that button is unshaded (turned off). To make the one on the right show the balloons, click the top half of that button.
Thank you for replying!
Since I am currently studying in an asian country and my Office product is licenced through my university there, the interface of Word Online is not in English. So I am not sure what you mean with the "Show comments" button. If I click on one of those small speech bubbles at the right side margin part of the text there appears a side panel on the right side of the window. and I can scroll through the comments. But I don't want that. I want to see the comments where I put them inside the text. Could you maybe show me with picture, where I should click? Thanks!
