changing the format of comments

[Tech Writer KC]

Hello,

I've tried Googling this to no end, but I cannot seem to find an
answer.

I am a tech writer, and comments are an important part of my editing
process. It's a small thing, but the current format of my comments has
been driving me nuts, and I'd like to find a way of changing it.

A past employer had their Word comments setup with the two following
format features that my current employer doesn't have:

1. The comments highlighted the selected text, rather than simply
enclose them in parentheses. A small thing, but so much easier to see
what exactly is being commented on than having to try and search for
where the often lightly-colored parentheses are exactly.

2. The comments included author and timestamp information.

I've searched through Word's help and googled, and I'm just coming up
completely empty on how to make either change. I'd greatly appreciate
any advice or help on finding solutions.

My version of Word is 2002, btw.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you upgrade to Word 2003, you'll find the former functionality restored.

 

[grammatim]

MicroCenter is now selling computers with both XP and Vista out of the
box ... but does anyone still sell Office2003?

Some years ago I needed an obsolete version of Word for Mac (because I
couldn't upgrade my operating system beyond a certain point), and MS
made me buy the current upgrade and then downgrade (at additional
cost) to the latest one that would run on the older machine. (The plus
was that when I got a newer laptop, I already had the newer Word.)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I haven't researched it, but sometimes you can find genuine retail copies of
older versions at online sites. I would be extremely wary of buying anything
listed at an auction site, but it's not unreasonable that an online computer
store would still have some retail copies. Just be careful to avoid anything
that might be OEM, bulk license, or the like (which basically means being
wary of prices that seem too good to be true).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

MicroCenter is now selling computers with both XP and Vista out of the
box ... but does anyone still sell Office2003?

Some years ago I needed an obsolete version of Word for Mac (because I
couldn't upgrade my operating system beyond a certain point), and MS
made me buy the current upgrade and then downgrade (at additional
cost) to the latest one that would run on the older machine. (The plus
was that when I got a newer laptop, I already had the newer Word.)