Inserting Notes

Gary really doesn't like the new threaded comments in Word. He knows that he can open documents that have the older comments (now called notes) in them, but he cannot seem to discover how to insert a note in a document. Gary wonders if there is a way to add a note instead of adding a comment.

The short answer is "there may be." When Microsoft introduced the new commenting system (what they often call "modern comments" or "threaded comments"), they also added a control to turn it off. The problem is, though, that the control was not available in all versions of Word, and Microsoft has not published any information about the versions in which the control is available.

Long-time users of Word understand that some older features of the program can be accessed if a document is saved in the older, DOC format. This doesn't seem to be the case when it comes to older notes, however—they are not contingent on the file format used for your document.

All of this has led most users to conclude that Microsoft really, really, REALLY wants people to use the modern, threaded comments. That means it is something that is here to stay, whether users want it or not. (And, to be honest, most users don't care about how comments are implemented. So, without a groundswell of opposition, Microsoft can safely ignore the desires of a few people like Gary.)

It needs to be understood that so far I've been talking about how to turn off the modern commenting feature in Word. You can find out more about how to do this and if it can even be done in your version of the program by checking out this page. (Yes, I know this is a stupid-long URL, but Microsoft seems to love those.)

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-msoffice_unknown-mso_subother/modern-comments-control-screenshots-for-windows/857ac31e-33f7-4aeb-9fc3-d2224d3e2d37

Gary's original question, however, was how to add notes to a document. Short of turning off the modern comments (if you can), there is no way to add a note. It is strange that Word doesn't even provide a method to access notes via VBA, so there is no real macro-based solution.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13941) applies to Microsoft Word 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.