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Changes to Comment Boxes Functionality

Anonymous
2020-12-12T20:30:28+00:00

In a recent update to Word 365, the way comments boxes work has been changed to focus on collaboration. I am a college professor and I use comments extensively to provide feedback on papers, but I never need to collaborate. The new "features" of comments boxes require added clicks (including having to click that I want to "Post" the comment in the first place after I have typed it), the comments are harder to read for my students, and the keystroke tools that I use for creating comments with canned text no longer work.

Is there some way that I can turn off all the collaboration stuff that I do not need and go back to the former way comments worked, without having to revert to a previous version of Word?

Thank you,

Andy

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-16T09:33:16+00:00

    "the point in making comments look like they currently do in Word Online" is part of the "dumbing down" process to reduce the capabilities of Word to only those that are available across all devices.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-12T22:09:13+00:00

    Hi Andy,

    While you may be working on your Desktop computer, if you have to click on Post comment to actually insert the comment, you have the document open in Word Online

    With the document open in the Desktop application, after inserting the text of the comment, you simply move the focus back to the body of the document and there is no need post the comment, of facility for doing that.

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  3. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-13T01:11:44+00:00

    I have given them a blast via the Help>Feedback facility.  I suggest others do likewise.

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  4. Stefan Blom 340.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-13T00:53:06+00:00

    The modified comments feature is also discussed in the blog post at https://insider.office.com/en-us/blog/modern-commenting-in-word.

    As an (additional) example, it appears that it won't be possible to change the font of the comments any more. 

    This is certainly a dis-improvement.

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  5. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-12T21:05:29+00:00

    Are you working with the Online application or on the Desktop?  

    WIth the Desktop application, there is very little difference between the commenting facility in Microsoft 365 and that in Office 2010 and I would actually prefer the presentation of comments in the later version.

    The comment facility in the Online application however is quite different.

    I am not sure what you mean by "keystroke tools"?  AutoCorrect works in the comment balloons in the same way that it does in the body of the document.

    The one criticism that I would make about the comment facility in all versions of Office is that it is not possible to change the size of the font.

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