Microsoft Word Comments: A Comprehensive Guide

Leveraging Microsoft Word's Commenting Feature for Enhanced Collaboration

Despite its perceived complexity, Microsoft Word incorporates several efficient tools designed to streamline your workflow. Among these, the Comments feature stands out as a particularly valuable asset.

Think of Word comments as digital equivalents to traditional yellow sticky notes. They facilitate writing, revision, and editing processes for diverse documents, including research papers, manuscripts, business reports, and creative writing projects.

The Versatility of Word Comments

The functionality of comments within Word extends beyond simple marginal notes. While mirroring the experience of annotating a physical document, the digital format offers significantly expanded capabilities.

Unlike handwritten notes, Word comments allow for the inclusion of both external links, directing readers to relevant web resources, and internal links, connecting different sections within the same document.

Facilitating Collaborative Review

Word’s commenting system promotes seamless collaboration. Documents containing comments can be easily shared with individuals or teams.

Recipients can then contribute their own feedback directly within the document, fostering a dynamic and iterative review process.

Furthermore, comments can be configured to automatically generate a pre-addressed email link, simplifying communication with reviewers.

Key Benefits of Utilizing Comments

Enhanced clarity during the writing process.
Streamlined feedback and revision cycles.
Improved document organization through internal linking.
Easy access to supporting resources via external links.
Simplified communication with collaborators.

Utilizing Comments in Microsoft Word 2011

Within Microsoft Word versions 2007 through 2011, incorporating comments into your documents is a straightforward process. When working in either Print Layout or Web Layout view, begin by highlighting the desired text. Subsequently, navigate to Insert > New Comment via the menu bar.

This tutorial specifically utilizes Word 2011 for Mac; however, the functionality and features of the Comment tool remain largely consistent across the PC version of Word.

Alternatively, the Comment tool can be readily accessed directly within Word’s Toolbar, also known as the Ribbon in Word 2010 and the 2011 Mac edition. This allows for the creation of a new note with a single click.

For enhanced efficiency, consider establishing a keyboard shortcut specifically for the New Comment menu item.

The length of your note is unrestricted; you can compose detailed explanations within the comment field. These notes will appear as “balloons” in the margins of the page, adjacent to the text to which they are attached.

Important: All comments require association with a selected text segment.

Comments serve as a valuable tool during the writing process, enabling you to record notes to yourself. This is particularly useful when maintaining workflow and deferring tasks like fact-checking or resource verification for later attention.

Furthermore, comments facilitate collaboration. They can be used by you or other readers to pose questions, suggest revisions, or reference external sources within the document.

Notably, comments are not included when the document is printed.

Should the on-screen display of comment balloons become disruptive or consume excessive space, simply select View > Markup to toggle their visibility. Repeating this action will restore the comments to view.

Individual comments can be deleted by clicking the “x” icon located in the upper-right corner of the Comment’s title bar.

Enhancing Comments with Hyperlinks

Adding Web URLs

A key benefit of utilizing Comments in Microsoft Word is the ability to embed links. These can point to external webpages, initiate an email via a mailto link, or direct readers to specific sections within the current document.

To incorporate a URL, first highlight the desired text. Then, add a comment note. You can either directly type the URL or drag and drop it from a webpage into the comment.

Creating Mailto Links

When collaborating on a document, you may wish to facilitate direct communication with reviewers or editors regarding specific comments. Recognizing the convenience modern users expect, Word allows for the inclusion of mailto links within comments or attached to selected text. This eliminates the need for recipients to manually create a new email and input the sender’s address.

To establish a mailto link, select the Comment field and navigate to Insert > Hyperlink, or use the shortcut Command+K. Within the dialogue box, input the recipient’s email address and a suggested subject line. The ScreenTip button allows for a customized message displayed upon hovering over the link.

Upon clicking the mailto link, a new email message will automatically open, pre-populated with the specified email address and subject line, streamlining the communication process.

Linking to Locations Within the Document

For extensive documents, such as lengthy dissertations, efficiently navigating to relevant sections is crucial. Comments can be used to create links to other parts of the same document. However, this functionality requires an initial setup step.

Begin by creating a bookmark for the target location. Select the text you wish to mark, then go to Insert > Bookmark. Rename the default “OLE_Link1” to a descriptive name. Finally, click Add.

To add the document link within a comment or to selected text, access Insert > Hyperlink. Choose the Document option. Click the Locate... button to view a list of available bookmarks. The bookmarked text will be visually highlighted in blue.

Hyperlinks can be removed by selecting the link and pressing Delete. Alternatively, you can modify an existing hyperlink by control-clicking it and selecting Insert > Edit Hyperlink.

We welcome your feedback on this guide and encourage you to share any other useful Word features you’ve discovered. Explore our other articles, including How To Make Use Of Research Feature in Microsoft Word 2007, How To Build a Mind Map In Microsoft Word, and How to Make Index Cards in Microsoft Word 2007.