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: Removing All Comments.
Word allows you to easily add comments to your documents. There may come a time when you want to get rid of all of them. In order to do so, you can follow these steps if your comments are included with the text (not as balloons):
Figure 1. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12119) 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: Removing All Comments.
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2015-04-08 07:53:14
Fran
This tip does work - but only when the comments are not displayed as balloons but within the text (i.e. in the Track Changes Options the "Use Ballooons" option must be set to "Never").
2012-09-18 04:22:53
Kim
This tip did work for me in Word 2010, but as Mark pointed out, the command is available from the Review tab on the ribbon.
You could add the command to the Quick Access Toolbar for easier access.
2012-09-17 10:49:11
Mark Gordon
I have found that this tip does not work. ^a does not show under the "Special" drop down in the Find and Replace dialog and when I type it in the Find and click on Replace All word tells me that 0 replacements were done. You can easily delete all comments through the ribbon.
Review-->Comments-->Delete-->Delete All Comments in Document
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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: 
Comments