Some comments not appearing in contextual view, but appear in list view.

Anonymous
2024-09-21T00:50:47+00:00

Greetings,

Since the last update (currently running MS Word Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156), some of the comments that I make in Word documents do not appear in contextual view, even though they appear in list view. I am not able to click on them in the text and have the comment appear in contextual view. After I make some comments, they disappear and are only available in list view. I am working on an important paper for the top medical journal in the world, and it is debilitating as an editor to not be able to make comments. This document is shared with 20 people. It has also happened in another document that I am working on for another client (in this document, it happened before the document was shared).

I called support. They cannot help and claim that it is not a Microsoft issue. I have copied and pasted the text with the broken comments into a new document and the problem still occurs. Saved the document to my PC (instead of OneDrive) and the problem still occurs. I have accessed the document on another computer and the problem still occurs.

I am beyond frustrated. My colleagues, global leaders in their fields, are mainly older and are technologically challenged. They will not understand if I tell them to look at the comments in list view instead of contextual view. Essential comments will be missed. I just need it to work properly. I am beyond frustrated.

Any advice is most appreciated!

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-09-22T18:19:24+00:00

    The comments are not resolved. The comments in question vanish before they are even posted in contextual view.

    Yes, that is not helpful in this case. I need them all to appear in contextual view as they should.

    Thanks!

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-10-03T20:15:04+00:00

    Super frustrating. It’s still happening for me. Just happened in a new doc yesterday. The only workaround that I’ve figured out is to copy the content of the comment and remake the comment in a different spot and/or highlighting different words, and then delete the original comment. This, of course, is not ideal at all, but it’s the only way I can get the disappearing comments to stay in contextual view. When I called customer support, they suggested the problem was on my end. Windows just updated this morning, but I haven’t attempted to make any comments to see if the issue is fixed.

    Ugh! Good luck!

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-12-11T00:09:26+00:00

    I posted on this issue long ago.

    My workaround is to always use the List View, unless there are only a few edits in the document and only a few comments. But using the List View is very inconvenient, particularly if there are a lot of comments (and there often are in my line of work).

    It is a little easier if you expand the vertical List View window to the left so that it covers, say, half the screen. Then you can see and edit the comments more easily.

    Hoping that Microsoft will fix this soon. Good luck to everyone!

    P.S. Betting this will be fixed within days after Microsoft Legal finally notices the issue while reviewing one of their own contracts!

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-03T20:31:28+00:00

    Ugh! I'm going to have to go through a week's worth of my comments on this document to figure out what appears as it should and what is missing. And using list view is not very helpful for this task because I won't know what comments don't appear in contextual view until I switch out of list view and into contextual view. This is a nightmare!

    Thank you, Jennifer, for reporting in the first place. I'll try the workaround you've suggested, but you are so right. It is far from ideal.

    I really appreciate that you replied to me.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-10-03T20:18:05+00:00

    I just posted the only work around that I’ve found. I copy the content of the disappearing comment and highlight a different word or text and then remake the comment. It usually stays. Super frustrating!

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