Microsoft Word 2003 - Revising Word Documents
Adding Comments
Comments allow a reviewer to add more notes or question content without making text changes inside the document. You can add a comment at the insertion point or with selected text that is associated with your comment.
To insert a comment:
- Place the insertion point where you would like the comment entered or by selecting the text associated with your comment.
- Click on the menu Insert | Comment, or click on the Insert Comment button located on the Reviewing Toolbar.
Note: If you entered your comment in a Balloon, press the Esc key to continue typing at the last insertion point.
Reviewing and Printing Comments
When reviewing comments in a document you can choose to review only the comments or review the comments within tracked changes. This section details how to view only the comments, whereas reviewing comments in tracked changes are discussed under the heading Tracked Changes.
To Display Only the Comments
- Open the document that you plan to review.
- On the Reviewing Toolbar, choose either Final Showing Markup or Original Showing Markup.
- Click on the Show menu and select only the Comments option by removing all other checkmarks from the menus.
Document Views
- In Normal View, comments are displayed in the Reviewing Pane.
- In Print Layout or Web Layout View with the Balloon option turned on, comments are displayed on screen. If the Balloon option is turned off then components are displayed in the Reviewing Pane.
Responding to a comment is very easy. Responses can be inserted directly below an existing comment or typed directly inside a Comment Balloon or the Reviewing Pane. To delete a comment follow the steps listed below.
Deleting Comments:
- Right-click on either the comment mark, comment balloon, or the comment in the Reviewing Pane, and choose Delete Comment from the menu.
- Click on the Comment Balloon and then the Accept Change/Delete Comment button.
Take note that you must click on the Comment Balloon and not the Comment Mark. Otherwise, all recent changes to the document will be rejected along with the comment. If you make a mistake, click on the Undo button to return the document to the former state.
- Click inside the comment to respond. Click on the New Comment button or the menu Insert | Comment button, a new comment is added below the prior comment.
- Respond to a comment by typing directly inside the Comment Balloon or Reviewing Pane. If you opt for this method consider typing brackets around your response and adding your initials.
To print a document that includes only the comments follow the instructions in the section To Display Only the Comments.
- Click on the view button Print Layout.
- On the Reviewing Toolbar, click on Show and then Options to open the Track Changes dialog box.
- Under the label Printing (with Balloons) click on the down arrow to set paper orientation.
- Auto - Word determines the best paper orientation based on the present margin settings and balloon width.
- Preserve - the document is printed using the layout orientation specified in Page Settings.
- Forced Landscape - the document is printed in Landscape format.
- Click on the menu File | Print to open the Print dialog box. When the dialog box opens change the Print What box to display Document Showing Markup and then click on the OK button.

