Which of the following describes how to change the user name that will appear on each comment?

The series Microsoft Word and MLA Style shows writers how to use Word to make their essays conform to MLA style guidelines. This post explains how to use the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word.

The Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word allows users to edit a document and see all the changes. Word does not normally display your changes. If you delete something, it does not remain on the screen. But if you delete a word while Track Changes is on, there will be a visual record of it. The word will either remain on the screen struck through and in a different color or else appear in a balloon in the margin with its status (in this case, “Deleted”).

This post explains how to use Track Changes. It also addresses the differences between Track Changes in versions of Word for PC and Mac. To access Track Changes, click the Review tab at the top of the main window of Word. If the instructions in this post do not work with your version of Word, consult Microsoft’s website.

How to Display Changes and Comments on Word for PC

Track Changes gives you options for displaying changes and comments. You can display the changes in the text or in balloons in the margins. To adjust the markup settings in Word for PC, click the drop-down menu below the Track Changes icon. Then click Change Tracking Options. In the window that appears, look in the section labeled “Balloons.” In the drop-down menu next to Use Balloons, you can select Always, Never, or Only for Comments/Formatting. In this window, you can also choose not to track formatting at all.

I find that using balloons only for comments and formatting is best. If you select that option, all the changes will appear in the text. If you select Always, Word will display changes in balloons, but what you see will depend on your viewing settings. Look in the Review tab next to the Track Changes icon. In older versions of Word, there will be a drop-down menu whose default setting is Final: Show Markup. If this is selected, Word will display all insertions in the text. Deletions will be shown in balloons. If you select Original: Show Markup, Word will do the opposite. Deletions will be shown in the text and insertions in balloons.

In newer versions of Word for PC, the drop-down menu is slightly different. You can choose Simple Markup, All Markup, No Markup, or Original. Simple Markup means that changes are not displayed with struck-through text and different colors. Rather, if you make a change, a line appears next to the changed text in the left margin. If you want to see all the changes in the text, select All Markup from the drop-down menu.

How to Display Changes and Comments on an Early Version of Word for Mac

In early versions of Word for Mac, such as Word 2011, there are only two options for displaying changes: use balloons or don’t. If you want to use balloons, go to the Track Changes icon and click Show Markup, then Preferences. Then click the box labeled “Use balloons to display changes.” There is no option to use balloons to display comments and formatting only. If you use balloons, all changes will be placed in balloons. This feature behaves much like the one in Word for PC. Selecting Final: Show Markup tells Word to display deletions in balloons. But if you select Original: Show Markup, Word displays insertions in balloons.

Alternatively, if you do not check the box labeled “Use balloons to display changes,” all changes will appear in the text. Comments will show up only in the Reviewing Pane. Clicking the Reviewing Pane button makes a box appear either beside or below the text. This box, or pane, lists all changes and comments in the document. If you do not want Word to track formatting, go back to Show Markup in the Review tab. If there is a check mark before Formatting, click it to remove it.

How to Display Changes and Comments on a More Recent Version of Word for Mac

In more recent versions of Word for Mac, click the Track Changes button and then Markup Options. A list will appear. Go to Balloons, and another list will appear to the right. You will see an option to display only comments and formatting in balloons, like the one in Word for PC.

The default setting to display changes is Simple Markup, which you will see in a drop-down menu above Markup Options. This setting is much like the one in recent versions of Word for PC. If you want to see all the changes in the text, select All Markup from the drop-down menu. To tell Word not to track formatting, click Markup Options then Formatting to remove the check mark.

How to Accept or Reject Changes

If you make changes with Track Changes on, the changes will be there even if you turn off the feature or change the viewing options. You will have to accept or reject the changes manually. There are two ways to do this: all at once or one at a time. The process of doing this is similar on PCs and Macs. If you want to accept or reject all changes in the document, go to the Review tab. You will see the Accept and Reject icons. To the right of each icon there is an arrow. If you click it, a drop-down menu appears. In the menus there are the options Accept All Changes in Document and Reject All Changes in Document.

There are two ways to deal with each change one at a time. If you right-click on a change, a menu appears. You can then accept or reject the change in that menu. You could instead place the cursor before the changed text. If you then click the Accept or Reject icon in the Review tab, the changed text will be either accepted or rejected.

How to Adjust Other Settings

Track Changes labels your changes with the username associated with your version of Word. To change your username on a PC, click the drop-down menu below the Track Changes icon. Then click Change User Name. To change it on a Mac, click Word at the top left, then Preferences. Then click User Information.

Word assigns the same color to all the changes made by a given username. By default this is either blue or red for the first user who makes changes. However, you can change the color associated with your username. On a PC, go to the Change Tracking Options window. On a Mac, go to the Track Changes Preferences window. In the window that appears, you will be able to select the color of your changes.

Right-click the cell and then click New Comment.
Type your comment. You can @mention someone to address the comment to them - this sends them email notification of the comment.
Click the Post button (or press Ctrl+Enter).
If other people have something to add, they can right-click the cell and choose Reply to Comment.

If you need to edit a threaded comment, rest your cursor over the cell. Then rest your cursor over the comment text itself, and click Edit.
If you need to delete a threaded comment, right-click the cell and then click Delete Comment.
If you need to delete a reply, rest your cursor over the cell. Then rest your cursor over the reply text itself, and click Delete.
If a comment thread is complete, then you can mark it as Resolved: rest your cursor over the cell, then click ... > Resolve thread. The comment will still be viewable, but no further additions can be made to it unless it's reopened. Anyone who has write access to a workbook can resolve or reopen comments.

Note: Keep in mind that it's possible for others to edit your comments. Comments in Office documents are stored in the file, so anyone with edit access to your file can edit your comment.

Right-click the cell and then click Insert Comment (or press Shift+F2). If you're using Excel for Office 365, right-click the cell and choose New Note.
Type your annotation text.
Click outside the cell.

If you need to edit the note, right-click the cell, and then click Edit Comment. If you're using Excel for Office 365, right-click the cell and choose Edit Note.

If you need to delete the note, right-click the cell and choose Delete Comment. If you're using Excel for Office 365, right-click the cell and choose Delete Note.

The Comments Task Pane shows you all the comments on the current worksheet, and lets you navigate to other worksheets to review those comments as well.

Select the first worksheet containing comments, and then on the ribbon, next to the Editing menu, select Comments.
Review the listed comments. Select a comment to see the cell containing it, and to make changes to the comment.
After you've reviewed all the comments on the sheet, at the bottom of the list select See more comments to see the next comment on another worksheet.
When you've reviewed the last set of comments you can go back to where you started: at the bottom of the list, select Return to first comment.

In Excel for Office 365, there are two kinds of comments to choose from: comments and notes. For more information, see the article, Threaded comments and notes.

Select the cell or cells that contain the comments that you want to copy.
Press Ctrl+C.
On the Home tab, click the arrow below Paste, and then click Paste Special.
In the Paste Special dialog box, under Paste, click Comments, and then click OK.
To cancel the moving border, click another cell or press Esc.

Notes:

Do not press Enter after you click OK. If you do, cell contents are copied to the paste area in addition to the comment.
Copied comments replace any existing comments in the destination area.

By default, Excel displays an indicator when a cell contains a comment or a note. You can control how Excel displays comments and indicators in cells by changing the default settings to always show or hide the comments.

Click the File tab, then click Options.
In the Advanced category, under Display, do one of the following:
- To hide both comments and indicators throughout the workbook, under For cells with comments, show, click No comments or indicators.
- To show indicators but display comments only when you rest the pointer over their cells, under For cells with comments, show, click Indicators only, and comments on hover.
- To always display both comments and indicators, under For cells with comments, show, click Comments and indicators. Note that in Excel for Office 365, this setting only applies to notes, not threaded comments.

Excel labels each threaded comment with the name of the person who is currently logged in with their account. This cannot be changed by typing over it. However, notes are different. Excel labels notes by using a name that you specify in the Options dialog box. The following procedure explains how to change the name that appears on notes, not threaded comments.

Click the File tab and then click Options.
In the General category, under Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office, type a name in the User name box.

Notes:
- If the User name box is empty, Excel automatically sets the value of the User name box to your user name, and uses that name for the label.
- Although you can’t suppress note labels, you can remove labels from notes by deleting them.

Print comments and notes in Excel

What to do if you're missing New Comment and New Note from Excel's context menu

Right-click the cell and then click New Comment.
Type your comment.
Click the Post button (or press ⌘+Enter).
If other people have something to add, they can right-click the cell and choose Reply to Comment.

If you need to edit a threaded comment or reply, rest your cursor over the cell. Then rest your cursor over the comment text itself and click Edit. You can only edit comments you've created.
If you need to delete a threaded comment, right-click the cell and then click Delete Comment.
If you need to delete a reply, rest your cursor over the cell. Then rest your cursor over the reply text itself and click Delete.
If a comment thread is complete, then you can mark it as Resolved: rest your cursor over the cell, then click ... > Resolve thread. The comment will still be viewable, but no further additions can be made to it unless it's reopened. Anyone who has write access to a workbook can resolve or reopen comments.

Select the cell or cells that contain the comments that you want to copy.
Press ⌘+C.
On the Home tab, click the arrow below Paste, and then click Paste Special.
In the Paste Special dialog box, under Paste, click Comments, and then click OK.
To cancel the moving border, click another cell or press Esc.
Select a destination cell, and then press ⌘+V.

Note: Copied comments replace any existing comments in the destination area.

By default, Excel for Mac displays an indicator when a cell contains a comment or a note. You can control how Excel displays comments and indicators in cells by changing the default settings to always show or hide the comments.

Click Excel > Preferences > View (under Authoring).
In the View dialog box, under For Cells with Comments, Show, do one of the following:
- To hide both comments and indicators throughout the workbook, click No comments or indicators.
- To show indicators but display comments only when you rest the pointer over their cells, click Indicators only, and comments on rollover.
- To always display both comments and indicators, click Comments and indicators.

Click Excel > Preferences > General.
In the General dialog box, under Personalize , type a name in the User name box.

Notes:
- If the User name box is empty, Excel automatically sets the value of the User name box to your user name, and uses that name for the label.
- Although you can’t suppress note labels, you can remove labels from notes by deleting them.

The Comments Task Pane shows you all the comments on the current worksheet, and lets you navigate to other worksheets to review those comments as well.

Select the first worksheet containing comments, and then on the ribbon, next to the Editing menu, select Comments.
Review the listed comments. Select a comment to see the cell containing it, and to make changes to the comment.
After you've reviewed all the comments on the sheet, at the bottom of the list select See more comments to see the next comment on another worksheet.
When you've reviewed the last set of comments you can go back to where you started: at the bottom of the list, select Return to first comment.

Print comments and notes in Excel

What to do if you're missing New Comment and New Note from Excel's context menu

Right-click the cell and then select New Comment.
Type your comment. You can @mention someone to address the comment to them - this sends them email notification of the comment.
Select the Post Comment button (or press Ctrl+Enter).
If other people have something to add, they can right-click the cell and choose New Reply.

If you need to edit a threaded comment, rest your cursor over the cell. Then select the comment, select the More thread actions menu, and select Edit comment.
If you need to delete a threaded comment, right-click the cell and then click Delete Comment.
If you need to delete a reply, rest your cursor over the cell. Then rest your cursor over the reply text itself, and click Delete.
If a comment thread is complete, then you can mark it as Resolved: rest your cursor over the cell, then click More thread actions > Resolve thread. The comment will still be viewable, but no further additions can be made to it unless it's reopened. Anyone who has write access to a workbook can resolve or reopen comments.

Note: Keep in mind that it's possible for others to edit your comments. Comments in Office documents are stored in the file, so anyone with edit access to your file can edit your comment.

Right-click the cell and then click Insert Comment (or press Shift+F2). If you're using Excel for Office 365, right-click the cell and choose New Note.
Type your annotation text.
Click outside the cell.

If you need to edit the note, right-click the cell, and then click Edit Comment. If you're using Excel for Office 365, right-click the cell and choose Edit Note.

If you need to delete the note, right-click the cell and choose Delete Comment. If you're using Excel for Office 365, right-click the cell and choose Delete Note.

In Excel for Office 365, there are two kinds of comments to choose from: comments and notes. For more information, see the article, Threaded comments and notes.

Note: When you copy and paste threaded comments to other cells, Excel for the web will also paste the cell values.

Select the cell or cells that contain the comments that you want to copy.
Press Ctrl+C.
Select the empty cells and press Ctrl + V.

Note: Copied comments replace any existing comments in the destination area.

The Comments Task Pane shows you all the comments on the current worksheet, and lets you navigate to other worksheets to review those comments as well.

Select the first worksheet containing comments, and then on the ribbon, next to the Editing menu, select Comments.
Review the listed comments. Select a comment to see the cell containing it, and to make changes to the comment.
After you've reviewed all the comments on the sheet, at the bottom of the list select See more comments to see the next comment on another worksheet.
When you've reviewed the last set of comments you can go back to where you started: at the bottom of the list, select Return to first comment.

In an Excel workbook, tap in the worksheet.
Tap Review.
Tap Comment.
Type your comment and tap the Post button.
To reply to a comment, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, and in the Reply text box, enter a reply and tap the Post button.

Here are other things you can do with threaded comments on your Android tablet:

To view a particular thread, tap the cell, and then tap the purple comment icon.
To view all threads in the worksheet, tap Review and then tap Show Comments.
To edit a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the particular comment you want to edit, and then tap Edit. Modify the comment as necessary and then click Save.
To delete a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the comment you want to delete, and then tap Delete.
To delete an entire thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap ... (the ellipsis icon) next to the first comment in the thread, and tap Delete thread.
To resolve a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap ... (the ellipsis icon) next to the first comment in the thread, and tap Resolve thread.

Tap the Edit icon
on your Android phone.
Tap Home, and then tap Review.
Tap Comment, type your comment, and then tap the Post button.
To reply to a comment, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, and in the Reply text box, enter a reply and tap the Post button.

Here are other things you can do with threaded comments on your Android phone:

To view a particular thread, tap the cell, and then tap the purple comment icon.
To view all threads in the worksheet, tap Review and then tap Show Comments.
To edit a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the particular comment you want to edit, and then tap Edit. Modify the comment as necessary and then click Save.
To delete a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the comment you want to delete, and then tap Delete.
To delete an entire thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap ... (the ellipsis icon) next to the first comment in the thread, and tap Delete thread.
To resolve a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap ... (the ellipsis icon) next to the first comment in the thread, and tap Resolve thread.

In an Excel workbook, tap in the worksheet.
Tap Insert.
Tap Comment.
Type your comment and tap the Post button.
To reply to a comment, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, and in the Reply text box, enter a reply and tap the Post button.

Here are other things you can do with threaded comments on your iPad:

To view a particular thread, tap the cell, and then tap the purple comment icon.
To view all threads in the worksheet, tap Review and then tap Show Comments.
To edit a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the particular comment you want to edit, and then tap Edit. Modify the comment as necessary and then click Save.
To delete a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the comment you want to delete, and then tap Delete.
To delete an entire thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap ... (the ellipsis icon) next to the first comment in the thread, and tap Delete thread.

Tap the Edit icon
on your iPhone.
Tap Home, and then tap Review.
Tap Comment, type your comment, and then tap the Post button.
To reply to a comment, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, and in the Reply text box, enter a reply and tap the Post button.
Click the green down arrow once you are done.

Here are other things you can do with threaded comments on your iPhone:

To view a particular thread, tap the cell, and then tap the purple comment icon.
To view all threads in the worksheet, tap Review and then tap Show Comments.
To edit a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the particular comment you want to edit, and then tap Edit. Modify the comment as necessary and then click Save.
To delete a particular comment in a thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap the comment you want to delete, and then tap Delete.
To delete an entire thread, tap the cell (that has the comment), tap the purple comment icon that appears above it, tap ... (the ellipsis icon) next to the first comment in the thread, and tap Delete thread.

In an Excel workbook, tap in the worksheet.
Tap Insert.
Tap Comment.
Type your comment.
Tap outside the comment box to stop commenting.
To view the comment, tap the comment in the workbook.

To delete a comment, tap the comment icon and then tap X.

Tap More
on your Windows phone.
Tap Home, and then tap Review.
To add a comment, tap Comment on your Windows phone, type your comment, and then tap Done.
To view or edit existing comments, tap the comment.

To edit a comment, tap the Edit comment icon.

To delete a comment, tap the Delete comment icon.

When you are done with your changes, close the comment box by tapping the X on your Windows phone.