Collaborate with Comments in Word 365
If you are working on a document with colleagues or clients, for example a proposal, report or workbook, clear communication is vital. However, if feedback on the document is spread out amongst phone calls, meetings and emails, managing all the changes and who said what can become a challenge.
But not if you know how to use the Comments feature in Microsoft Word 365!
In this post I want to share why you should use comments, how to add them and I’ll share a link to a video how to, so if you are like me and need to see something in action, you can….let’s go
Why Should You use Word 365’s Comments Feature?
When you have a few people sharing input on a document, the comments feature is a great way to have people make their comments within the original document.
It is a feature that came in with Microsoft 365 and is often overlooked for it’s ability to make document collaboration easier.
Here’s how Using Comments in Word 365 can help:
- Separation: Rather than clutter up the document with suggestions, or use Word’s “clunky” Track Changes, the Comments feature allows you to suggest changes and ask questions all without altering the document text.
- No more confusion: Word automatically allocates comment names based upon user log ins in Microsoft 365 making it clear to see who said or suggested what.
- Fast tracks collaboration: With Word 365, collaboration can happen whilst you are discussing a document in an online meeting, or just working on your own. No waiting for documents to be emailed back and forth and worrying about which is the current version.
- Useful for explaining documents: rather than lengthy emails to explain a document, comments can also be used to explain elements of your document rather than having additional text.
It really doesn’t matter who you are, if you are collaborating with others, then understanding and being able to effectively use comments could save you hours and fast track your communication with others.
Steps to Adding Comments in Word Documents
With your document open:
- Select the text you would like to comment on.
- From the top right corner of the Word window, click the Comments button.
Prefer to watch the video?
I get it, click the image below
- A pane will activate on the right of screen, click New Comment.
- Type in your comment. Press Ctrl + Enter to post it or the right pointing arrow.
- To reply to an existing comment, click inside the comment and choose Reply, type in your response and press Ctrl + Enter or the right arrow to post it.
- If you want to delete a comment, right click on the comment and choose delete or click the … dots and choose Delete Comment.
Handy Hints:
#1 If you are commenting on a document that is shared with someone, you can put in @name to prompt them to check the document. They will need to have permission to access the document to do this!
#2 If you like keyboard shortcuts, the comments pane can be quickly activated by the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + M (PC environment)
Prefer to see it in Action
No worries, check out the video below where I walk you through it.
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