Working with Comments

You may, at times, want to write notes in a document (either to yourself or to other authors) that don't print out. Word's Comment feature lets you add comments that reference particular blocks of text, and track comments from multiple authors.

If you work extensively with comments, you'll appreciate the buttons in the Reviewing toolbar (choose View, Toolbars, Reviewing), shown in Figure 11.3. If you use Windows XP or later, the Reviewing toolbar shows slightly different icons from those shown in Figure 11.3.

Figure 11.3. The Reviewing toolbar contains buttons for working with comments.

To add a comment to a document, follow these steps:

1. Select the text that you want to comment on.

2. Click the Insert Comment button in the Reviewing toolbar. (You can also choose Insert, Comment or press Alt+Ctrl+M.)

3. Word highlights the text you selected, opens the comment pane at the bottom of the document window, and inserts a reference mark for the comment in the document and in the comment pane. Type your comment in the comment pane (see Figure 11.4).

   Figure 11.4. Type your comment about the highlighted text in the comment pane.

   

4. Click the Close button at the top of the comment pane.

The reference mark is made up of your initials and a sequential number. It is formatted as hidden text , so it appears onscreen only when the comment pane is showing or the Show/Hide button in the Standard toolbar is turned on. The dotted underline under reference marks (see the reference mark [TL1] in Figure 11.4) just indicates that it's hidden text.

Word closes the comment pane. When the Show/Hide button is turned off, the reference mark is hidden from view. You can tell where the comment is, however, because the text that you selected is still highlighted.

To read a comment, rest the mouse pointer over the highlighted text. In a moment, a ScreenTip appears with the name of the person who wrote the comment and the comment itself (see Figure 11.5).

Figure 11.5. Rest your mouse pointer over highlighted text to read the associated comment.

To move from one comment to the next in a document, click the Next Comment and Previous Comment buttons in the Reviewing toolbar.

To edit your comments, click the Edit Comment button in the Reviewing toolbar (or right-click the highlighted text of any comment and choose Edit Comment in the context menu). Word opens the comment pane to let you revise the comment text. When you are finished, click the Close button at the top of the comment pane.

To delete a comment, click to the left of the comment and click the Delete Comment button in the Reviewing toolbar (or right-click the highlighted text and choose Delete Comment from the context menu).