Pop-up Comments

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 29, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you work with Comments in your documents, you may really like this tip. Did you know that Word can automatically display a comment when you position the mouse over the comment marker in your document? For instance, if there is a comment marker such as [ALW1] in your document, and you position the mouse pointer over that marker, a small pop-up window appears and displays the contents of the comment.

If your version of Word does not do this, simply follow these steps to turn on the feature:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the View tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The View tab of the Options dialog box

Make sure the ScreenTips check box is selected.
Click on OK.

Why Word refers to the pop-up comments as "ScreenTips" is beyond me. Normally, ScreenTips are a different feature, as described in the following tip.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (644) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Avoid Using the Normal Style

The basis of almost all styles in Word is the Normal style. Here's a good reason why you shouldn't use it.

Discover More

Saving in Two Locations

When you save a workbook to disk, you may want to automatically save a duplicate workbook in a separate location. This ...

Discover More

Disabling Shift+Ctrl

Both Excel and Windows have scores of defined shortcut keys. This can be great for productivity, but it can be a real ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (menu)

Printing Comments

After adding comments to a document you may want to print them later. Word provides a variety of ways you can print the ...

Discover More

Copying, Moving, and Deleting Comments

Comments are often added to documents to aid in their development. You can use regular editing techniques to copy, move, ...

Discover More

Changing the Language of Comment Boxes

In most instances Word makes it relatively easy to change the language associated with your document text. This is ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 8 - 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.