Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 8, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
When writing and editing a document, it is not uncommon to add comments throughout the document. This is particularly true if you are writing a "team" document, where several people have responsibility for different parts of the document.
When you are through working on the document, you may want a way to get rid of all the comments at once. One easy way to do this is to use the Find and Replace feature in Word. Follow these general steps:
This will delete all the comments in the document if you are using Word 97 or Word 2000. It won't work if you are using a later version of Word because it appears that the ^a code is no longer available. Instead, you can follow these steps to delete the comments if you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003:
Depending on how complex the comments are in your document, neither of the above approaches may get rid of all the comments. This is particularly true if you have Track Changes turned on, and the document has gone through much iteration with lots of comments, some with Track Changes in place and some not. If you discover problems, or if you routinely have many, many comments to delete, you may want to consider creating a very short macro to get rid of comments. The following macro will delete all the comments in a document:
Sub RemoveComments1() For Each cmt In ActiveDocument.Comments cmt.Delete Next End Sub
This macro will work in all VBA-enabled versions of Word. If you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003 you can also use the following single-line macro, if desired:
Sub RemoveComments2() ActiveDocument.DeleteAllComments End Sub
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1896) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Deleting All Comments.
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!
When you print out your documents, do any comments in the document appear very tiny on the printout? It could be because ...
Discover MoreAfter adding comments to a document you may want to print them later. Word provides a variety of ways you can print the ...
Discover MoreWant to pull text from a bunch of paragraphs and stuff that text into comments? It's easy to do using the macro presented ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
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.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments