Share via

How to hide/delete comments pane

Anonymous
2015-11-07T13:09:20+00:00

This may seem like a simple question, so I hope there is a simple answer. I want to hide and/or remove the comments sidebar in Word 2013. I am writing a book and I had an editor placing notes in the comments sidebar and I can't seem to get rid of that view. Actually, I would like to delete them altogether and have no comments sidebar at all. Can you help? Going a little crazy here.

Thanks in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-11-07T15:33:39+00:00

    As long as the document contains comments (you have not deleted them), they will be displayed when markup is displayed. In order to suppress the Comments Pane and the display of comments, you must change the settings I described. If the document opens in a view showing All Markup, you will need to (once per Word session), switch to Simple Markup or No Markup.

    70+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

3 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-11-07T13:48:35+00:00

    If you are saying you would like to delete all the comments, then you can do that from the Review tab: in the Comments group, click the arrow under Delete and choose Delete All Comments in Document.

    If you opt to display comments in balloons, then the Comments sidebar will not be displayed:

    1. In the Tracking group of the Review tab, for Show Markup, select the markup items you want to see (if the document contains only comments and no tracked changes, it won't matter what you select provided you leave Comments selected).
    2. For Balloons, select Show Revisions in Balloons or Show Only Comments and Formatting in Balloons.
    3. Click the dialog launcher (small arrow) in the bottom right corner of the Tracking group.
    4. In the Track Changes Options dialog, select Revisions or Comments and formatting for "Balloons in All Markup view show."
    5. If you click Advanced Options..., you will get a dialog where you can specify the width of the markup area used for the balloons.
    6. Click OK to close both dialogs.

    Now, when you select All Markup, you will see the comments in balloons in the right margin. When you select Simple Markup, you'll see a balloon icon indicating a comment; you can click on that to see the comment. When you select No Markup, you won't see the comments at all.

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-07T14:10:10+00:00

    Thank you for the thoughtful remarks; However, it doesn't solve the problem, at least not with this document. I can turn the no comments on, and the comments panel disappears. Problem solved, right? No. When I save the document and return to it the comments panel and all its' contents are back.

    Anyway, I reverted to a simple solution to remove formatting: I copied and pasted the content into an email and then copied that into a new Word doc. I think this file I have may be corrupted in some way, so maybe it's for the best.

    Thanks again for your help.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-07T23:08:45+00:00

    Thank you.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments