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. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-05-08T07:57:41+00:00

    Thanks for the follow-up.

    What didn't work in MacWord, specifically? Are you saying that the macro doesn't run at all?

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-05-08T01:10:04+00:00

    Sorry..thanks for trying, this did not work on a Mac 365/2016

    Do you know if Microsoft is looking into adding back comment numbering into this version? If so, ETA?? Thanks much,

    Gayle

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-05-07T18:42:56+00:00

    You can run this macro manually to apply Arabic style numbering to the Comment Text style (applies to the currently active document in Word):

    Sub ModifyCommentStyle()

    'Comment Text numbering macro created by MVP Stefan Blom

    'Tested in Word for Windows

    Dim s As Style

    Dim lt As ListTemplate

    On Error GoTo errhandler

    Set lt = ActiveDocument.ListTemplates.Add(OutlineNumbered:=False)

    With lt

    .ListLevels(1).NumberStyle = wdListNumberStyleArabic

    End With

    Set s = ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleCommentText)

    With s

    s.LinkToListTemplate lt

    End With

    errhandler:

    Exit Sub

    End Sub

    In Word for Windows, you can change the name of the macro from ModifyCommentStyle to AutoOpen and the macro will run for every document that you open in Word. However, I am not sure if so-called auto macros are supported in Word for Mac.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-05-07T15:06:26+00:00

    Any help you could try to offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,

    Gayle

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