change bar

Question

change bar

Easter, Timothy 0

How do you only show change bars in pdf? No comments, just show change bar. the original document is word, which i converted to pdf.

Stefan Blom 346.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-13T18:51:15.8033333+00:00

The suggestion by Hendrix-C is a good one, assuming that you have a subscription version of Office that lets you turn off so-called modern comments. It will simplify things with comments, because you can hide them from view, with no need to delete them in a copy of the doc.

For the purpose of other people who may be following the thread, the topic of change bars is also discussed in the thread at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5945361/help-change-bars .

1 answer

Your answer

Stefan Blom 346.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-13T18:51:15.8033333+00:00

The suggestion by Hendrix-C is a good one, assuming that you have a subscription version of Office that lets you turn off so-called modern comments. It will simplify things with comments, because you can hide them from view, with no need to delete them in a copy of the doc.

For the purpose of other people who may be following the thread, the topic of change bars is also discussed in the thread at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5945361/help-change-bars .

Answer 1

Hendrix-C 19,950 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Timothy,

If you want to show track changes but excluding comments in PDF, you first need to turn off the modern comments setting in Word via File > Options > General > uncheck the box of "Enable modern comments" > restart Word.

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Then open the original .docx document, go to Review > Show Markup > uncheck/turn off Comments and export the document to PDF again.

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Hope this information would be helpful for your concern. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out again in the comments on this post. I'm happy to assist you further.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

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Stefan Blom 346.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-13T18:35:34.1766667+00:00

Good point. In a subscription version of Office, turning off modern comments is a good idea. That will change how Word treats comments. In the classic comments interface, comments are seen as part of the markup / track changes feature, rather than a separate feature.
Easter, Timothy 0 Reputation points

2026-07-14T11:05:59.04+00:00

that didnt work. i want change bars. i do no want comments
Stefan Blom 346.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-14T13:44:29.6333333+00:00

Do you have access to the "Enable modern comments" option? If you enable it and then restart Word, you get more choices for displaying (or not displaying) comments via the markup drop down.

If you do not have a version of Word that lets you enable modern comments, you are left with the workaround of deleting comments in a copy of the original document and then print (or convert to PDF). See my previous replies at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5945361/help-change-bars .
Easter, Timothy 0 Reputation points

2026-07-14T13:48:05.1666667+00:00

I ALREADY DID THAT