Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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: Converting Paragraphs to Comments.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 4, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021
When developing a document, it is not unusual to use a particular paragraph style for editorial notes. For instance, the notes may be stored in paragraphs using a style called "Notes". At some point, you may want to take all the paragraphs that use the Notes style and convert them to actual comments in the document. You can go through the document and make the conversion manually, but this can quickly get tedious. Instead, use a macro that does the conversion for you:
Sub ConvertNotesToComments() Dim CommentText As String Dim MyRange As Range Dim iPCount As Integer Dim J As Integer Application.ScreenUpdating = False iPCount = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Count For J = iPCount To 1 Step -1 If ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(J).Style = _ ActiveDocument.Styles("Notes") Then Set MyRange = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(J).Range CommentText = MyRange.Text 'Get rid of trailing end-of-paragraph mark CommentText = Left(CommentText, Len(CommentText) - 1) 'Move selection to end of previous paragraph MyRange.Collapse (wdCollapseStart) MyRange.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1 'The original paragraph is no longer necessary ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(J).Range.Delete 'Create the comment at the range location ActiveDocument.Comments.Add Range:=MyRange, _ Text:=CommentText End If Next J Application.ScreenUpdating = True End Sub
The macro steps backwards through the document, looking at the style of each paragraph. If it finds one that uses the Notes style, then it moves the text of the paragraph into the CommentText variable, and then gets rid of the paragraph. The comment is then added to the end of the paragraph prior to where the deletion was made.
Before ending this tip, I need to make sure I provide just a bit of clarification. As of this writing, Microsoft has changed the wording it uses. "Comments" are now threaded discussions, and traditional comments are now called "Notes." Not only did this muddy the water (and make explanations more difficult), it also caused an uproar in the Word community.
The point of bringing this up is that any reference to comments within this tip refers to the traditional comments, which you may now know as notes. So, the macro above will convert the paragraphs to what Microsoft now calls Notes.
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13382) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Converting Paragraphs to Comments.
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2023-02-04 15:42:26
Tomek
Allen,
Good and useful tip. It lets the author to type the document as fast as he thinks, then deal with formatting, Comments er. Notes later.
Why Microsoft didn't keep the comments as they were, and create Notes to do threaded discussions is beyond logic.
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