MS Word 2016 comment bubbles not numbered

Anonymous
2016-11-17T18:10:54+00:00

I am using MS Office 2016 and it seems that comment bubbles are no longer numbered like they were in previous versions. When a reviewer using an older version of Word refers to a specific comment by its number, I cannot tell which comment they are referring to because the comments are not numbered in Word 2016. Does anyone know why this feature was removed or how to fix it? It is extremely frustrating that the numbering of comments has been removed. Thank you,

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2016-11-17T19:42:44+00:00

In Word 2016 (and 2013), comment numbers only display when you look at the print preview (at File | Print) or when you print the document, unfortunately. As a workaround, you can apply paragraph numbering to the Comment Text style.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-17T19:58:12+00:00

    Thank you very much for your reply. I would be interested in understanding Microsoft's rationale for removing this feature or at least not allowing the option to revert the feature, as I find this horribly detrimental to the utility of the comment bubbles. Either way, now I have a work around in viewing in print preview, so thank you again for replying.

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  2. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-11-17T21:06:30+00:00

    I have no idea why the display of comments has changed. It is a bad idea to display something and print something different, of course. I think we all prefer what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

    I recommend that you post a suggestion for Microsoft to change the behavior in a future version. You can do so in the forum at http://word.uservoice.com. If someone else has already made that suggestion, you can choose to vote in that thread instead.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-05-22T22:05:21+00:00

    I tried adding paragraph numbering but it doesn't work for me. My comments sometimes have multiple paragraphs and I only want one number per comment.

    Not having numbers in the comment bubbles is a major issue for me! I routinely work on documents of 50-100 pages and they may contain over 100 comments. It is very hard to tell reviewers to look at the comment on page 58, 5th paragraph, 2nd sentence. In 2010 all I had to do was say to look at Comment 43. Does anyone know whether Microsoft is considering putting the numbers back in?

    Thanks,

    Vivian

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-05-22T23:04:50+00:00

    Raise the issue at 

    http://word.uservoice.com/

    if it has not already been raised there (search for it)

    In the meantime if you need multiple paragraphs in a comment, use SHIFT+ENTER

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