Section 15.3. Reviewing with Comments


15.3. Reviewing with Comments

Although PowerPoint 2007 doesn't track the actual changes your reviewers make to your slides (see the box on page 430), the program does keep track of the comments your reviewers add to your slides. Similar to the ubiquitous sticky note, a PowerPoint comment is a bit of freeform text that your reviewersor you, for that mattercan attach to a slide (Figure 15-4).

Figure 15-4. When you add a new comment, PowerPoint automatically begins the comment with your name and the current date, to which you can add as much text as you like.


Comments don't appear when the slideshow runs; they appear only when you're editing a slideshow (and even then, you can hide them). Comments are useful for jotting reminders to yourself. You could add a hastily drawn sketch to a slide as a placeholder and then add a comment to that slide reminding yourself to track down a professionally-created image when you have time.

The folks you send your slideshow to for review can use comments to ask questions ("I don't understand this chart; can you ditch it?"), note discrepancies ("This looks like it's saying the opposite of what you say on Slide #13"), and suggest changes ("I think we should get Rob in Sales to redo this list."). Figure 15-5 shows a slide with comments from a bunch of reviewers.

Figure 15-5. Comments appear on your slide as tiny sticky-notes, each bearing the creator's initials . You can't see it in this black-and-white figure, but PowerPoint gives each person's comments a different color so that you can easily focus on one at a time.



Note: Don't confuse comments , which you see only when you're editing a slideshow, with speaker notes , which you see when you run a slideshow (page 43).

15.3.1. Adding a Comment

Adding comments is easy, as you can see in the following steps, but don't get carried away. For the sake of whoever has to read and incorporate comment text (even if that someone is you), keep your comments as short and concise as possible. If you've got multiple points to make, add multiple comments.

To add a comment:

  1. On your slide, select the object you want to add a comment to, and then click the Review tab.

    The reviewing and commenting tools appear (Figure 15-6).

    Figure 15-6. The Review tab's Comments section lets you (and your reviewers) attach sticky-note style comments to your slides. Until the first comment is added, the only option PowerPoint activates is the New Comment option, as shown here.


  2. Click New Comment.

    A text pane appears, prefilled with your name and today's date (Figure 15-7).

    Figure 15-7. When you add a comment, PowerPoint automatically includes your name and the current date.


  3. Click in the comment pane and begin typing. When you finish, click elsewhere on the slide.

    The comment pane disappears, leaving only a thumbnail icon showing your initials and the number of that particular comment (Figure 15-5). If this is the first comment you've added to this presentation, PowerPoint puts the number 1 after your initials; if it's the second, PowerPoint adds the number 2 to your initials; and so on. PowerPoint displays the comment thumbnail near the object you selected right before you created the comment.

15.3.2. Reading Comments

To read an individual comment, click the thumbnail icon that looks like a little sticky note (see Figure 15-5). When you do, PowerPoint displays the text of the comment. Double-clicking the thumbnail icon lets you see and edit the comment.

But instead of paging through your presentation to review all the comments, you can use the ribbon to skip directly from one comment to the next in order to read every comment attached to your slides. First click any comment to select it. Then go to Review Comments Next (to see the next comment that was added to this slideshow in chronological order) or Previous (to see the previous comment). PowerPoint pops up a message letting you know when its reached the last (or first) comment attached to your slideshow.

15.3.3. Editing Comments

Editing comments lets you and your reviewers create a running thread of commentary on a single issue, a digital trail that helps you keep track of which comments you've integrated into your slides, which ones you haven't, and why.

Say you send your presentation to your boss for her feedback. She sends it back with a comment on slide number six telling you to update the figures you used in your chart. You make the suggested changes, and then edit her comment to let her know which database you used to pull the figures. She, in turn , takes a look at the revised presentation and edits the same comment to say, "Good job, this looks great."

To edit an existing comment, click the comment thumbnail to select it and then choose Review Edit Comment. You can also just double-click the thumbnail. PowerPoint displays the comment pane, automatically replacing the comments original creator and date with your name and the current date. You can change the original comment text that appears, add new text, or both.

15.3.4. Deleting Comments

If you're working through your reviewers' comments, you probably want to delete them after you've had a chance to read and incorporate them.

PowerPoint lets you delete individual comments, of course; but if you like, you can also delete all the comments on a particular page, or all the comments in the entire presentation.


Note: To temporarily hide comments so you don't have to look at them (but keep them so you can view them again later), click Review Show Markup. (Show Markup is a toggle option, so clicking it once shows comments and clicking it again hides them.)
Comments Delete Delete. PowerPoint erases the selected comment.

To delete all the comments on a slide, select Review Comments Delete Delete All Markup on the Current Slide.

To delete all the comments in a slideshow, select Review Comments Delete Delete All Markup in this Presentation.




PowerPoint 2007
PowerPoint 2007
ISBN: 1555583148
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 129

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