Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. 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: Turning Off Comment Color when Printing.

Turning Off Comment Color when Printing

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 15, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007 and 2010


2

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.)
  4. Figure 1. The Track Changes Options dialog box.

  5. In the dialog box, use the Comments drop-down list to choose White.
  6. 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.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Replacing Links with Values

Need to get rid of the links in your workbook but save the values that were retrieved by those links? It could be easy or ...

Discover More

Protecting Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a great boon in developing and working with documents--"until someone deletes them. When it comes to ...

Discover More

Changing Limited Relative References to Absolute

Do you need to change whether a particular reference in a formula uses a relative or absolute reference? If so, you may ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing the User Name in Existing Comments

Want to change the name that Word associates with various comments previously added to your document? Here are some ideas ...

Discover More

Comments Only Visible When Hovering Over a Word or Phrase

The comment feature of Word allows you to easily attach comments to words or phrases in your document. How those comments ...

Discover More

Adding Comments to Your Document

If you would like to add non-printing notes to your document, the Comments feature is one way of doing that. Here's how ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 8 + 7?

2017-02-10 06:21:15

David

Thank you very much for the great tip about the setting "Print Colors as Black on Noncolor Printers".

Unfortunately, while this works with other printers, our Toshiba color laser printer does not obey that setting, even when the printer is set to "print in black and white".

This means that the Word comment boxes/balloons, unfortunately, are still printed with a gray background. However, we'd rather have the comment boxes with white background (or with no background, for that matter).

Is there anything more we could do to achieve this?

Thank you again,
David


2015-06-24 05:24:58

Gabriela Romanini Gibowski

The tip above, unfortunately, did not work on my case.
When I followed the instructions given it make the whole box white on my screen but it prints black and as the fonts are still in black color I am not able to read it.
Also changing the comments color to white gets rid of the tracking line color. So it is harder to identify where on your template that comments is being linked to.

I have been trying to find where I could get the font white with the comment background black or vice versa to print it in non color. At the moment all I get, regardless any tip are full black balloons.

Any other way I could try?

Many thanks!


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.