I also can't just click INTO it to edit, I have to click on more buttons. Can I remove Modern Comments and revert back? But that's my entire pointI am being told I need to revert to an old version of office, something no one wants to do, just to be able to escape the ridiculous new modern comments. Method 1: Use Shortcuts To begin with, put insertion pointer at the start of the first comment text. Has anyone figured out how to do that? File tab 2. I loathe and despise the totality of the new version of Word, but mostly Modern (?) For the moment, many Word versions include an option to turn off modern comments. . 09:26 AM. My Word (on Microsoft 365) has updated to Modern Comments. In Word neither "text prediction" nor "modern comments" are available. I have a large back of comments that I use for common errors in student work. That may be fine if you only have a few, but if you're working on a tech spec with tens or hundreds, it's almost impossible to tie specific comments in with the text. Modern Comments (horrible name!) Word + Excel + PowerPoint: Bringing It All Together, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Words Modern Comments: A Copyeditors Perspective, City, State: A Comma with Two Competing Roles, To add the comment shown above, I selected the phrase its how we show our work, pressed Ctrl+Alt+M (Im working in Windows; on a Mac its Cmd-Option-A), and typed This is a classic Word comment.. Select the Info tab in the Backstage view. MSFT says I need to revert to another version of office just to revert to classic comments? The functionality of using comments has been greatly reduced with the introduction of Modern Comments (MC) into Microsoft Word. The new experience shows comments to the right of the page by default. Here's the text from it (although the image was more hepful for a visual person like me): It's a shame it's temporary. haven't rolled out to my Word 365 (Windows) version as yet, so today I turned off Updates to prevent them from being installed (File > Account > Update Options button).Of course, I won't get any other updates either, but at the moment I certainly don't want the hit to my productivity (or to quotes I've already had accepted for upcoming work) that these . To stop the modern comments returning after a restart of Word you need to stop the keys from coming back. [I take that term from the incredible comment from MS some years back after a disastrous OS release that you could always 'upgrade back to the previous OS'!! The new ribbon shows fewer icons and takes up less space. To hide comments, select the Show Markup menu and uncheck Comments. If I forget to post and try to type a new comment, it pulls me back to my previous comment and starts typing, making me lose my spot where I wanted the next comment. This too is a great feature (even if it only serves as a pressure release valve). Click on File. You cant do that using modern comments. Let us know in the comments down below. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 3. Figure 21. Open the View menu and select Comments. You're forced to finish one first, to the standard you're happy for others to see, defeating the purpose of not having to post until it's finished. Microsoft Office Word Online. and there's no option to revert to 'classic comments'. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance. I know this is an old post, but I found it, so in case others are seeking: to edit a comment in Mac OS, you can assign a shortcut to the command AnnotationEdit (And why is it not CommentEdit?!?! Customize Settings. Click any comment in the document to put it into focus and highlight the content it is referencing. Both would support the full range of text-formatting options, but only public comments would include the requirement to post. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=76186)Timing:Current. -- Diane Poremsky Give back to the Community. 3. That seems to have done the trick. With the Office Insider newsletter, you can get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month. Being signed in with a work or school account means @ mentions in the comment will fire off notifications via email (with a link to the document in question and the option to add yet more comments). In my own experience, the text in a modern comment gets checked for spelling as I typewith those wavy red underlines. Modern comments is amateur coding. Figure 2. Unfortunately, text in Modern comments can no longer be spellchecked. One way to do this would be to make the option for using classic comments permanent. Modern comments started out more like the comments in Docs. I don't share my documents, so being able to edit comments and post when they're finalised is not particularly useful for me, as no one else is looking at them until I send the document. Restart Word to get classic comments back. Delete thread option. Of course, its gone now, probably because it * was * useful. Tip: To review changes in the document without accepting or rejecting them, select Next or Previous. For example, I couldnt use @mentions in the draft file that I saved in OneDrive while signed in to my personal Microsoft account. I was despairing at "Modern Comments" and that the world's largest software developer could make such a monumental boo-boo in bringing in this abysmal feature.Steve. It began innocently enough last month. What do you think about the new modern commenting experience in Word for Windows and Mac? Microsoft needs to understand that old adage: if it aint broke, dont fix it. Microsoft has introduced a temporary option in Word that lets you turn off Modern Comments and revert to Classic Comments. Thanks for pointing this out. This worked for me too: MUCH better. But where is Preferences hidden? Since then, Ive allowed my laptop to upgrade to the latest Word 365 (version 2014, build 13929.20296), and have extensively tested Modern Comments to see what the issues are and how they may affect writers and especially editors, who often work on very long and complex documents written for fields such as the corporate and business world, government, legal and regulatory bodies, medical entities, academia and education, and more, as well as fiction books. - edited I also can't just click INTO it to edit, I have to click on more buttons. If only MS would buy one of the several companies that has an iOS solution ready Man i remember when the first 1Gb Western Digital Hard drive was released . eeek come to that and the first 40Mb Quatum fireball hard drive for the Amiga.. Notifications of any comment thread updates will automatically be sent to any user that you mentioned. But Words new comments are less easy to get excited about if, like me and most of the other copyeditors I know, you do your main work in isolation. But where is Preferences hidden? I'm working on a personal laptop--no IT department to deal with. Or issue terse responses. Figure 1. you have got to be kidding me. Everything on the tabs, ribbon and dialogs remains exactly where they are. Instead, commented-on text is shaded in gray until a specific comment is either in progress or hovered over or selected; then the shading turns purple (as in the screenshot above). Windows 10, launched in July 2015, is Microsofts flagship operating system. Entries (RSS) Now, select "Info." Click the "Version History" button. and Comments (RSS). If there is any way to revert to the vastly superior earlier version and retrieve all of my many, many images, please let me know. But as Word will tell you, youll need to open the Revisions pane (a.k.a. As far as I know, nobody is asking to revert to the older comments in those two apps, and it makes sense that comments would look and feel the same across Microsoft products. You cant add images or equations, and you cant change font size or color. Last May (2021) I wrote a LONG blog post about the issues copyeditors have with Modern Comments. Modern Comments has set my grading back decades, let the collaborators congregate on Teams. Your Consent Options link on the site's footer. Best practices and the latest news on Microsoft FastTrack, The employee experience platform to help people thrive at work, Expand your Azure partner-to-partner network, Bringing IT Pros together through In-Person & Virtual events. other information you should include in your feedback. It turns comments into a reviewing-oriented Navigation pane. Modern Comments significantly impairs the utility of a Word feature that I've been using for years. Just "save as" Word 1997-2003.doc - nice and modern, just a pre-smartphone/unsocial media solution. Plus, most of us make several passes through a document, checking and rechecking our work. Nobody at Microsoft seems to be listening. The main areas of concern, among others, relate to: Ive divided this post up into (no order of priority or severity is implied): This is a long post, so you might want to grab a coffee, Update June 2021: For the really short version, see this brilliant cartoon from Iva Cheung: https://ivacheung.com/2021/07/modern-comments/, How comments were indicated in previous versions of Wordobvious lines and obvious colours, How comments are indicated with Modern Commentsno lines, just speech bubble icons; pale colours, Update 6 Jan 2022: Some of the FAQs on this Microsoft page address some of the issues raised in this post, and offer some workarounds: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/using-modern-comments-in-word-edc6ae71-0a2d-49fe-8faa-986f1e48136a. 12:44 PM Is it possible to turn off Modern Comments and revert back to the way it used to be? To stop the modern comments returning after a reatrt of Word you need to stop the keys from coming back. Open Word and click on the Word in the menu on the top of the screen. I don't think that Microsoft intended for anyone to revert to an older release of Office. Please, give us the old Word, or at least fix the awful comments. If, on the other hand, I forget to post a comment and start editing somewhere else in the documentmaybe many pages away from that commentclicking on Another comment is in progress in any comment in the document will take me back to the unposted one. Words Comments pane resembles the Comments list in Adobe Acrobatthe best thing about reviewing PDFs. Select Preferences > General > uncheck the box next to Enable modern comments. Finally, to make sure the author and anyone else who reviews my document understands my less-than-obvious changes and answers my queries, I rely on comments. I cannot locate that either. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 1. ", Another critic wailed: "I am truly at a loss for words as to why this seemed like a good idea to your development team.". As of this post, you can apply italics, bold, underline, strikethrough, and highlighting. Things move fast and i am old.. new modern commenting experience in Microsoft Word, Inspirational Ukrainian Antonov An-225 Mriya comes to Microsoft Flight Simulator, Microsoft Defender could be installed in your Windows PC automatically soon, Windows 11s next Moments Update includes AI, iOS support, screen recording, and more, Lenovo announces new ThinkPad E-Series with 40GB of memory, L-Series with new AMD chips, and a modular AIO at MWC. So much functionality has been lost, while other functions that used to take no time at all now require several clicks to access. He also contributed to the revisions of the last two editions of Kate L. Turabians A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. It works just fine. When will they do it. I am so relieved to see so many others frustrated with this Modern Comments as I feel exactly the same! If you later need to review all of the resolved comments, click the. My typing has evolved to use those features. Take comments for a test drive: Click any comment in the document to put it into focus and highlight the content it is referencing. Open the plugins or themes folder, depending on which software you are planning to replace. Then go to change the formatting as you like. The Comments pane is in fact the reason I now prefer modern comments over classic comments for reviewing longer documents. You can still see images in the Reviewing pane. This also completes our goal of aligning the commenting experience across Word platforms and other Office apps, especially in Word, Excel & PowerPoint. :-(. I made a special point of registering for this forum only to find a solution to this Modern Comments mess that has made my academic workflow so difficult. I'm just curious what else I changed when I deleted all those keys Can I remove Modern Comments and revert back? Russell Harper (@cpyeditor) is editor of TheChicago Manual of Style Online Q&A and was the principal reviser of the last two editions of The Chicago Manual of Style. I'm an editor and the only one on the doc when I edit, and I could really do without the extra work :\. Formatting in Modern Comments: Beyond Google Docs. Replace xxxx.yyyy with the build number you want to revert to. I have a number of problems with the useability of these comments, based on the way I have used them in the past (for context, I am an educator and primarily use them when marking student assignments). Can you explain how to disable inheritance? You might need your IT department to help. Most people do not collaborate. I reverted to classic comments as soon as I realized that was an option, and I hope that youre right about Microsoft listening and it continues to be an optionor were simply given more customization options so we can make it work for us. Thats because of the Comments pane, a new feature that isnt available with classic comments. Figure 1. The Comments Pane: Saving Grace, or Revert While You Can? Trying out Spoutible as a Twitteralternative, When the job ad for an editor requiresediting, Excel: Convert hours and minutes to minutes, Word: Table or table row goes to next page, Testing ChatGPT against an editor's rewrite, A light-hearted look at how punctuation can change meaning, Word to PDF: Table of Contents not clickable, Trying out Spoutible as a Twitter alternative, Word: Change caption numbering from sequential to chapter numbering, If one or more of my tips have helped you, saved you time, or saved your skin, you can thank me by clicking the PayPal button (or, loss of functionality that has existed since comments were introduced many years ago (its broken), extra clicks and mouse movements that have to be done to insert, save, or edit a comment (its not ergonomically efficient), impingement on valuable screen real estate (its hard to use and is not efficient), lack of connection between comments and the text they relate to (its hard to use and is not efficient), resulting additional time and loss of productivity (and therefore extra cost to the client) it takes to review/edit documents and make comments for author action (its not efficient). 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