Inserting Notes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 30, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


3

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.

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. ...

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What is five more than 0?

2024-11-30 21:29:38

Tomek

One more suggestion for Gary:
You can consider adding your comments using callouts (Insert-Shapes-<select callout>), or other shapes. essentially all of them can accept text. Just re-format them to your liking (Fill, Outline, Font size and color), then set the selected one as the default shape.
They can point to a text, or a least to a paragraph. Setting them to move with text is somewhat tricky but possible, although they are not anchored to the text selection. But they may just suit your needs.


2024-11-30 20:52:12

Tomek

re:
It is strange that Word doesn't even provide a method to access notes via VBA.....

Actually, there is limited access to the notes via VBA. You can add a note, get some information about the existing note (date, author, text content of note), you can add text to an existing note and delete existing text.

One thing I did not figure out is how to get the text that the note refers to.

On the other hand, I do not see much usability for doing anything with the notes by macro. After all, the notes, or comments are meant for collaboration or leaving notes to yourself - all of which are interactive rather than automatic.


2024-11-30 20:35:54

Tomek

I opened the link provided and followed the steps. It did not work for me, although it required me to restart Word. For the record I use Word in MS365 Family on Win10 machine.

Having said that, the info pop-up beside this setting says that "This setting is temporary and will be removed in the future." Well, the setting is still there but it does nothing.

I agree to some extent that the modern comments have their value, but I strongly dislike the fact that Microsoft has removed this user's choice.


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