Add Comments to Word, Excel or PowerPoint Files

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About this lesson

Add comments, replies, and mentions to a document in Office Online.

Quick reference

Add Comments to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint Files

Provide feedback and suggestions using comments in Office Online files.

When to use

We add comments to documents whenever we want to communicate notes, feedback, or suggestions to others.

Instructions

Work with Comments

  • Open Word from the App Launcher
  • Open a document

If a document has comments, we can see those comments on the right-hand side. 

Comments are another way that we can collaborate with our co-workers. Microsoft 365 uses threaded comments meaning we can reply to comments and mention other people much like a conversation. 

  • Click on the comment

We can click on the thumb icon to let the author know that we like the comment. 

Replies and Mentions

  • Click in the @mention or reply box underneath the comment
  • Type a reply to the comment

To direct the reply towards someone else, we can use @mentions

When we @mention someone else, they will receive a notification with a link to the comment. 

Comment Options

  • Click the three dots next to the comment

From here, we have three comment options:

  • Link to comment: Copy the link to the comment and paste it elsewhere
  • Resolve thread: We use this when all comments have been resolved
  • Delete thread: This will delete the thread containing the comments from the document
Dock Comments

By default, comments will show in floating 'bubbles' on the right-hand side of the document. We can show our comments docked in a pane on the right-hand side instead. 

  • Click the Comments button at the top of the document

Add a New Comment

  • Select a word or paragraph in the document
  • Right-click and select New comment

Alternatively, select New from the Comments pane. 

Hints & tips

  • Resolving a comment thread will close off the comments but still leave the comment in the document
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  • 00:04 In the previous lesson, we saw how we can share a file with a colleague and
  • 00:09 make changes in real-time to that document.
  • 00:12 So we're picking up from that point in this particular lesson.
  • 00:16 I am still working in the Word document and
  • 00:18 Adele is still co-authoring the document with me.
  • 00:22 Now, something is slightly different to when we left off in the last lesson, and
  • 00:27 that is that Adele has actually gone in and
  • 00:29 she's added a comment to one of the paragraphs in the document.
  • 00:33 So you can see here she says, I think this paragraph needs to be reviewed.
  • 00:38 So comments are another way that we can collaborate with our coworkers.
  • 00:42 Comments are great for people reviewing documents.
  • 00:45 We can suggest changes and updates, or
  • 00:48 even just let people know if something's good or if something is bad.
  • 00:52 And when we're working in Microsoft 365, we use threaded comments.
  • 00:57 And what we mean by that, is that we can reply to comments and
  • 01:01 we can also @ mention other people.
  • 01:03 So let's take a look at this comment that Adele has left.
  • 01:06 Notice, if I hover my mouse over it, it turns purple, and
  • 01:10 it really highlights that comment in that sidebar.
  • 01:13 Now one thing I can do here is I can give Adele a like for this comment.
  • 01:18 So let's click the thumb.
  • 01:19 I have three dots, which gives me more thread actions.
  • 01:23 So I can link to another comment in the document.
  • 01:26 I can resolve the thread and in general, you would resolve once the comments have
  • 01:31 been dealt with, or I could delete the entire thread.
  • 01:34 Now we're not going to do any of those things, at this point,
  • 01:37 what I'm going to do is I am going to reply to Adele.
  • 01:40 Now because I'm replying directly to Adele, I don't need to @ mention her.
  • 01:46 So I'm going to say, sure thing, I think maybe Grady should take a look at this.
  • 01:53 So this is where I can @ mention somebody else.
  • 01:56 As soon as I type in the @ symbol, it pulls up a list of all the people within
  • 02:00 my organization and I can choose Grady just here.
  • 02:04 And you can see at the bottom here,
  • 02:06 it says that Grady is going to be notified by email about my comment.
  • 02:10 So when I send this off because Grady doesn't currently have access to this
  • 02:15 document, I only shared it with Adele,
  • 02:17 I'm now getting the option to grant him access.
  • 02:20 So I'm going to say yes, share and notify.
  • 02:23 So Grady will now receive an email It's going to let him know that I've
  • 02:28 mentioned him and it's also going to send him a link to this document so
  • 02:32 he can also dive into here and co-author alongside myself and Adele.
  • 02:36 Now, by default,
  • 02:38 the comments show in this kind of bubble format to the side of the document.
  • 02:42 Now if you would prefer to have these comments over in their own pane,
  • 02:47 if you click the Comments button just above,
  • 02:50 that's going to kind of dock them over to the side.
  • 02:53 If you want to add a new comment, so maybe a bit further down,
  • 02:56 I want to select this piece of text.
  • 02:59 I can click on New.
  • 03:01 It's going to open up a new comment, And I'm going to say
  • 03:06 check the terminology here, and I'm going to direct that towards Adele.
  • 03:10 Let's click on Send.
  • 03:12 So I can see that Adele has liked this and she's replied OK.
  • 03:16 Now what I could do at this stage is I could choose to resolve this thread.
  • 03:20 So if we click the three dots, I'm going to say okay,
  • 03:23 we're pretty much done here, let's resolve the thread.
  • 03:26 Now it doesn't remove the comment from the document so
  • 03:29 we can still track all comments.
  • 03:31 But it does put a little tick over the comment so
  • 03:33 that we know that this comment has been fully resolved.
  • 03:36 And of course, if you want to delete any comments,
  • 03:39 you can simply click on the trash can to delete the entire thread.
  • 03:43 So comments are another great way that you can co-author
  • 03:48 documents and work seamlessly with your teammates

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