Comments Only in Word?

[AJ Scogz]

Is it possible to share a Word 365 document such that viewers may add comments? 

We want to get people's input but don't want them to make changes to the document. There's too many people and would be impossible to manage.

Google Docs has this feature, so I'm hoping that Word does too.

[#2]

Yes, use the Protect document feature as detailed here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Allow-changes-to-parts-of-a-protected-document-187ED01C-879...

[#3]

Hi @Vasil Michev

Thank you.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong here, but what we need is a way to have 6 people add comments, simultaneously while we go through a rather large document.

This feature seems to not be compatible with Word in the cloud and as a result would need everyone to download a local copy of the document, which could cause syncing and versioning issues.

Do you have a solution to that? 

[#4]

Alternatively, if there's something else in the O365 suite that might be able to help us, what is that? 

[#5]

Co-authoring (simultaneous edit) is definitely supported in O365, as long as the file itself is stored within a document library with versioning enabled. Some elements of a document can only be edited via the full desktop version though (which still allows co-authoring).

[#6]

@Vasil Michev 
I came accross this as well. I am working in a school environment and would like students only to be able to comment on a certain literary text. I was able to protect the document from changes, but that forces students to open the document in their Word app instead of remaining in the browser. Not all students, however, have installed Word or there are cases, in which students only have a A1 licence. In these cases they would not be able to comment a document online, which is a pitty and because of which I have to move these documents to google docs which allows online commenting of a document. It would be a great addition, if Office365 would enable online commenting (without being able to make changes)!

[#7]

So far, it sounds as though the answer to this question, with viewers/commenters using the Word 365 web interface, is no. :(