Turning Off Comment Color when Printing

Penny has a document that has some comments within it; on some pages there are quite a few comments. She also has a color printer, so when she prints the document, the comments are printed in color. She would rather that the comments did not print in color, as printing them in color is rather expensive. Penny wonders if there is a way to turn off the color of the comments when they are printed.

The approach you take depends on whether there are other color items in your document that you do want printed. If there are not, then the best solution is to look to the printer itself for the answer. Most modern printers have some way to turn the color off, meaning that the document is printed in gray scale instead of color. There may be a control on the printer itself or you can click Properties to the right of the printer name in the Print dialog box to find a control there.

If you can't find such a setting for your printer, then you can instruct Word to try printing in black and white. Follow these steps:

1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
2. At the left of the dialog box click Advanced.
3. Scroll to the very end of the options in the dialog box.
4. Click the plus sign to the left of Layout Options. Word shows a long list of compatibility options it can use.
5. Make sure the Print Colors as Black on Noncolor Printers option is selected.
6. Click on OK.

Another approach is to try changing the actual color used in the comments. This may take some experimenting, as the results will depend on your printer and its capabilities. Follow these steps:

1. Make sure the Review tab of the ribbon is displayed.
2. In the Tracking group, click the down-arrow just under the Track Changes tool.
3. Choose Change Tracking Options. Word displays the Track Changes Options dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Track Changes Options dialog box.

4. In the dialog box, use the Comments drop-down list to choose White.
5. Click OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7538) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Turning Off Comment Color when Printing.