Searching for Comment Marks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 25, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you don't know where a comment mark is located in your document, you can use Word's powerful searching capabilities to find them. The easiest way is by using the Object Browser. Follow these general steps if you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003:

Click the Object Browser icon. It is the small round ball just below the vertical scroll bar, in the bottom-right corner of the program window. Word displays a palette of objects by which you can browse.
Click on the Comment object. It looks like a yellow sticky note. When you click on it, the palette disappears.
Use the Previous and Next controls, above and below the Object Browser icon, to jump to the previous or next comment.

If you are still using Word 97 or Word 2000, then you can use Word's Find feature to locate comment marks. Follow these steps:

Choose Find from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl+F. Word displays the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

In the Find What box, enter ^a.
Set other searching parameters, as desired.
Click on Find Next.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1893) 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

Aligning Positive and Negative Whole Numbers in a Column

When you use a table to present numeric information, you may want to have Word align the numbers in the table. This can ...

Discover More

Viewing Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes and endnotes are normally visible with the rest of your document, but such visibility is dependent on which ...

Discover More

Two-Level Axis Labels

Need a chart that uses two lines for axis labels? It's easy to do if you know how to set up your data in the worksheet, ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Comments in Text Boxes

If you use text boxes in your documents, you may sometime want to place a comment in the text box, the same as you can do ...

Discover More

Pasting a Comment into Your Document

When developing a document, you may end up with all sorts of comments that you need to deal with. One common task is to ...

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 one less than 9?

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.