Comment attribution

Question

Comment attribution keeps changing to Author even when preferences and properties are set to name. This is happening on Mac Office 2016 AND on Office 365 on PC. No matter who the comment writer is, the attribution changes to "Author" as soon as you save the document. We need to track the commenters!

Answer 1

According to the thread at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_mac/word-2016-for-mac-how-to-scrub-clean-wipe-delete/62ab9378-a80f-46b4-aa50-ea226fcc3604, you should look under Tools | Protect Document.

Answer 2

In Word for Windows, running the Document Inspector sets a flag that makes Word remove personal information, such as user names, each time you save and reopen the document. You can clear the flag, assuming that there is a similar option in Word for Mac. On the Windows side, the option is called "Remove personal information from file properties on save" (and you'll find it in Trust Center).

Answer 3

Thanks for your reply. It does not occur on all files but it occurs on this file for both PC and Mac users, some on Office 365, some on Office 2016, some on Mac Sierra 10.12.

Answer 4

Thank  you for your reply. I confirmed with my Windows users that this was indeed the problem. However, my Mac users can't clear the flag - we don't know where in Mac Word version 15.32 to locate this flag. Mac OS is Sierra (10.12.3). Any hints?

Answer 5

Hi Maria,

Normally, the comment writer is the one who owns the account to sign into Word.

I suggest you try the following steps:

1. Sign out of Word.
2. Re-sign into Word.
3. Restart Word.

If the issue still exists, could you please provide the following information?

1. The Word version.
2. The OS version.
3. Check if the issue occurs on all files.

Thanks,

Qing