Review comments disappeared

Anonymous
2014-05-04T12:30:54+00:00

So I've spend long hours addressing student coursework, giving comments on their projects.  They said the comments wouldn't work so I re-opened their documents and they appear to be correct.  Where are all my comments gone?  The actual comment boxes are still there but they are empty.  This is incredibly annoying.  Can I get them back or have they gone forever?  Screen shot provided for reference.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-08-16T21:29:46+00:00

    No change for me. Plus, my problem includes a loss of the commentor identification, not just text.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-16T21:27:24+00:00

    Sadly, its nothing I can share. Also, I read all the posts. You have examined others' files. Have you found anything helpful?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-08-16T21:21:02+00:00

    Hi Folks:

    I believe I may have an answer for you all.  I stumbled upon this problem a few years back when I kept getting second and third drafts from students who did not address all of my comments in the original draft they sent me.  Finally, a student told me that she didn't see a few specfic comments when I mentioned them to her.  I opened up the document I had sent her an hour earlier and sure enough, not all of my comments were there.  I immediately opened the draft I sent her, checked it, and could see my comments.  Clearly, this is a problem.

    Long story short, MS Word appears to have a flaw.  Here's what you need to do to see all of your comments:  Open up Word and open a document.  Select "File" then "options".  Select "Display" then scroll down until you see the box that says "Hidden Text".  Select that box.  Once you do this, it should save this as the default.  NOTE: The person who is reading your comments must have that box checked, otherwise, they may miss some of your comments.

    Once I had my students do this, they could view all of my comments.  I'm not sure why this makes a difference, but it works.  I hope this helps.

    C-

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-08-16T18:36:31+00:00

    If you send me a copy of the document, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will investigate the issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-08-16T18:22:52+00:00

    Like the OP, its not just the comment content, but the commentor is missing. I lost most, but not all comments in document. The first three comments were unaffected, then the fourth was missing the commentor and was a different color. The reset were still highlighting the relevant test, but no commentor and not comments.

    Very frustrating and very concerning at how widespread this is. I had no glitch, no crash, no warning at all. Just a usual save. Opened later and near everything is missing.

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