Comment box too long

Question

Firstly, please note that the balloon text is set to 9 pt and it is readable.

I'm using Word 2010 and typically don't have any problems inserting comments into documents. I was emailed a new document today and when I tried to insert a comment the balloon box stretched to at least 2.5 pages wide. The balloon text is of normal size and is readable, but the box is much too wide. I have no idea what version of Word this document was created on. This problem only occurs with this one document, all others are fine.

How do I shrink the comment box back to its normal width?

Answer 1

had same problem in word 2013.  what worked for me: 

click the ruler at the top of the page to bring up "page setup" dialog.

the right margin was, for some reason, set to a really large number.  like 20 inches or something.

changed it back to 1 inch.

similarly, paper size was changed to extreme width.

changed it back to standard 8.5 by 11.

no idea how these settings got corrupted in the first place.

Note that the original question is not about margin widths at all.

Answer 2

had same problem in word 2013.  what worked for me: 

click the ruler at the top of the page to bring up "page setup" dialog.

the right margin was, for some reason, set to a really large number.  like 20 inches or something.

changed it back to 1 inch.

similarly, paper size was changed to extreme width.

changed it back to standard 8.5 by 11.

no idea how these settings got corrupted in the first place.

Answer 3

The rules that apply to copying text with tracked changes are discussed here: http://shaunakelly.com/word/sharing/howtrackchangesworks.html#HowToCopyTextContainingTrackedChanges.

Answer 4

Thanks. This solution worked but any changes that I made with the "Track Changes" option aren't copied into the new document. The changes are copied, but they are copied as normal text rather than highlighted changes that can be accepted/rejected. 

I'll assume that the document is corrupt and there is no work-around for this problem; copy the text into a new document and redo all of the changes I made.

Answer 5

This suggests document corruption. Try copying document content, minus the final paragraph mark (¶), into a new, blank document.

To show/hide paragraph marks as well as other nonprinting marks, click the ¶ button on the Home tab.