In Tracked Changes in Word on my Mac, balloons are no longer showing and cannot be selected from the tab under Mark up options

FrancesFollin-1068 20 Reputation points
2026-04-09T08:12:32.1966667+00:00

When using Word on my Mac, my deletions and comments suddenly stopped showing up in 'balloons' - deletions appear as crossings out and comments come up as '[FF1], [FF2] etc in the text (FF being my initials]. When I send the file to someone else, they can see the balloons. Under Mark up options in Word I can click on 'Balloons' but when the list opens up I can't select any of the three options - they just don't respond to being clicked on and none of them is ticked. I have been through Word preferences - I have looked at everything I can find.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | MacOS
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Answer accepted by question author
Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2026-04-10T08:31:05.6466667+00:00

Is the document displayed in Print Layout view?

Also, could you upload a screen shot which shows the current settings in the track changes category in Word Preferences?

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  1. FrancesFollin-1068 20 Reputation points
    2026-04-10T10:59:35.7766667+00:00

    Dear Gabriel - I tried to send this before but it doesn't seem to have worked. Stefan Blom's suggestion that I check the 'view' Word was in solved the problem as Word had somehow moved onto 'Draft' view after it had crashed and reopened - though the previous week it had righted itself while I was actually working on the document. All very weird but I will know what the probable culprit is if it happens again (highly likely, given that it has now happened twice!)

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  2. Anonymous
    2026-04-09T10:00:17.7533333+00:00

    Hello FrancesFollin-1068

    I tested this scenario in my own environment and was able to reproduce a similar issue. In my case, it appeared to be related to an account conflict, although I initially thought I had signed in and activated Office, the account was not properly authenticated.

    As a first step, please ensure that your Office apps are updated to the latest version and check whether the issue persists.

    If the problem continues, kindly try the following:

    • Close all Office applications.
    • Reopen Microsoft Word and check whether a Sign in icon appears in the top-right corner prompting you to sign in.
    • If prompted, please sign in using your work account, then reopen the affected document to see whether the missing options reappear and can be switched as expected.

    User's image

    If the issue still cannot be resolved, I recommend verifying that all important documents are backed up before proceeding with the steps below.

    You may then follow Microsoft’s official guidance to remove old or potentially corrupted Office license files on macOS: How to remove Office license files on a Mac - Microsoft Support

    Note: The following step removes Outlook profiles. If you have local data in Outlook, please ensure they backup this data before proceeding.

    Quit all Office applications.

    Open Finder and navigate to: ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/

    Delete the Identity folder.

    Open Keychain Access, search for the following terms, and remove all related entries:

    • Microsoft Office
    • ADAL
    • MSOID

    Restart your Mac. Open any Office application and sign in again with your work account.

    I hope these steps help resolve the issue. When you have a chance, please share an update on the outcome, as your feedback may be valuable to other community members experiencing a similar challenge.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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