This week I needed to review a technical document for a client, which was written using Microsoft Word. The author asked the reviewers to use the program's comment feature. Seemed like a simple enough request until I realized I needed to move some comments.

I like Word's comment feature and I think it adds value. I find it very easy to click in the document and press Ctrl+Alt+M to add a comment. As I review a document, I use this feature to ask for clarifications or to make a note to myself. When reviewing this last technical document, I posted several long comments that included questions for the author. Several sections later, the author provided more details that addressed some of my previous comments. As a result, I wanted to edit and move some earlier comments.

Editing my original comments was easy. I could either click in the comment balloon, or use the Reviewing pane. Figuring how to move the edited comment, is not as easy. The key is to focus on the color-coded insertion mark and not the comment balloon. The comment marker looks similar to a large red capital I and precedes the dotted line to your comment balloon if you're using Print Layout or Web Layout views.

The trickiest part is highlighting the comment marker. I found I was better off inserting an extra space on either side. Once you highlight the marker, you can cut or copy the comment to another area.

{mostip}

To move a comment in Word,

1. Find the comment marker

2. Add an extra space before and after the marker.

3. Highlight the marker

4. Press Ctrl+X (cut)

5. Move to the new location for the comment

6. Press Ctrl+V (paste)

7. Remove the extra space around the marker if necessary

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