Comment balloons will not print. WORD 2010

Anonymous
2011-10-25T22:05:21+00:00

Comment balloons will not print.  I have a document that has insertions and deletiions in the text and comments in balloons in the right margin.  When I try to print it, the space is there in the right hand marginto accomidate the ballons but the balloons don't print.  They show up in the Word Print Preview.

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Anonymous
2014-01-15T14:08:17+00:00

This is a very old thread, but i'll post here as it's the top Google answer for 'word comments not printing.' I had this problem with a couple of users and i found the problem was that if a document is displayed in the Windows Explorer preview pane comments balloons won't print. With the preview pane disabled (or if you open the document from within Word, as others suggested), it will work. 

If it has been opened in the preview pane you need to open task manager and kill winword.exe if it is running in order for it to work.

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Anonymous
2012-05-17T17:55:05+00:00

Comment balloons will not print.  I have a document that has insertions and deletiions in the text and comments in balloons in the right margin.  When I try to print it, the space is there in the right hand marginto accomidate the ballons but the balloons don't print.  They show up in the Word Print Preview.

Here's what works for me.  It is still annoying, but at least I can get the comments to print in the shaded area on the paper to match the print preview.  This works for me for printing to PDF, to a networked HP, and to a networked Xerox Mobile Express driver.  I hope it works for you, too.

  1. Close Word.
  2. Re-open Word.
  3. Using Word (not Windows Explorer), open the document.
  4. Print your file.  On the Print page, under Settings, click the button that holds the options like "Print all pages" and make sure that the "Print mark-up" is checked.

I've started doing a test run by printing 1 page to the printer "Adobe PDF", so I know the comment balloons are really printing. This keeps me from wasting paper and pricey color toner, and saves the interruption of a jog down the hall to the network printer.  Once I know the balloons are visible in the PDF, then I send the whole document to print on the network printer.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-01T21:39:47+00:00

    Nailed it. I had the same problem in Word 2013. It was NOT intuitive. Display? Really? Anyway, it's fixed. Actually, I had to turn on hidden text under print AND under the "Always Show These Formatting Marks on the Screen." Whatever that means.

    Thank you!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-12T23:29:56+00:00

    Thank you, but that is what I did by going to File, Options, Display and we have not had the issue occur again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-12T22:20:22+00:00

    Select your printer

    Go to Page Layout tab

    Then click the arrow in the lower right corner of the page setup section

    Select the Paper Tab

    Then select Print Options

    Be sure the "print hidden text" box is checked

    Then click print - that should do it.

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