Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Pasting a Comment into Your Document.

Pasting a Comment into Your Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 5, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016

Word includes a powerful tool that allows you to add comments to your document. Since comments are designed for reviewers' annotations while developing a document, it is handy to know how to paste the text of a comment into your main document. This is done using editing techniques you are already familiar with. Follow these steps:

Make sure that the Reviewing Pane is visible at the bottom of your screen, or that the comment balloons are visible at the right side of your document.
Select the text in the comment that you want to paste into your main document. Make sure you do not select the comment mark at the beginning of the comment or the paragraph mark at the end.
Use Ctrl+X to cut the text or Ctrl+C to copy the text to the Clipboard.
Position the insertion point at the place in your main document where you want the comment inserted.
Press Ctrl+V to paste the text into the document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6036) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Pasting a Comment into Your Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is four minus 0?

2020-06-05 17:12:09

Malcolm Patterson

If there is a way to move a comment, I don't know it. I don't find it to be a problem. I often decide to propose replacing a little more or a little less than originally intended (or to put the comment in a different place).

1. Copy everything in the comment (selected by mouse or with Ctrl+A, followed by Ctrl+C ).
2. Delete the comment (right-click, then D).
3. Select the new placement for the comment.
4. Initiate a new comment (Alt, R, C--but the old way still works: Alt+I, M)
5. Paste the contents of the clipboard to the new comment (Ctrl+V).
6. Edit the comment as necessary to suit the new location.

It seems like a large number of steps, but it's quick. I would welcome suggestions for a better way.

2020-06-05 16:37:31

Malcolm Patterson

I'd suggest that step 4 should be

Select the text to be replaced by what's on the clipboard or position the insertion point at the place in your main document where you want the clipboard text to be inserted.

One doesn't always want to insert the entire comment, which may include added text to support or explain the proposed change.

Common practice in our organization is to reserve markups for the correction of errors. Alternative language is proposed in comments instead of markup. This way, both the original and the alternative are readable at the same time. Typically, the reviewer making the comment will select exactly the text to be replaced before initiating the comment. This helps the author (and other reviewers) understand exactly what is proposed.

2020-06-05 07:08:18

Hazel K

Is it possible to move comments to a different part of the same document, rather than deleting from where it is and either re-typing or pasting into the new place?

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