Fact Balloons and Comments HELP!

[dmcrory]

Is there anyway to turn off fact balloons and keep the comments from
changes from disappearing.

READ THE PROBLEM BELOW


The most annoying thing about Word 2004:

the fact balloons appear for insertions, deletions, and formatting
changes--and if you elect not to see those particular balloons (but to
keep comments), the changes disappear from the text as well.

I've complained about this before and it's not just me--several other
people have the same reaction.


Finding a billion balloons on your screen and no longer being able to
use comments because they are stupidly intertwined with tracked
changes is a bad way to start the week.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Correct. Balloons either show all changes, or none. There is no
equivalent to the old Comments Pane, which would show Comments only.
Please use Help | Send Feedback to let the MacBU know you would like to
be able to control balloons for comments separately. I'll try to
remember to do the same.

There is not actually any way to "elect not to see those particular
balloons"--that's the problem--so I'm not sure what you meant by that.
The Show menu in the Reviewing Toolbar refers to showing Insertions at
all, not just showing in Balloons or not.

You can set the Preferences to color code the types so that if you use
Balloons, the comments will stand out in their own color. That might
help a little.

 

[Clive Huggan]

This is such an impediment to efficiency that I side-step it altogether by
inserting comments inline with text, either as an AutoText item or manually
keyed -- in both cases preceded by a keyed-in "#" sign for easy finding.

The comment is applied in a style that stands out on the screen and in
print. It takes 3-4 seconds to apply.

Then, if I need to show others the changes that have been made I select
Tools menu -> Track Changes -> Compare Documents, then navigate to the
previous version of the document.

I do this constantly in early versions of some highly collaborative document
development, and everyone is comfortable with it (especially colleagues who
take hard copies on the plane). It takes no longer than Word's "Comment"
facility and keeps control in my (our) hands. And it eliminates increasing
the electronic complexity of the document, which can lead to corruption
(avoiding corruption is a very high priority for me).

More details are on pages 129 and 208 of some notes on the way I use Word
for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a free
download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from North America and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* SUGGESTION -- KEEP REVISITING AFTER YOU POST: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is provided; sometimes you'll be asked for further information. Good tips
about getting the best out of posting are at
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html and
http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari you may see a
blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload the current
page" -- two or more times).
============================================================

 

[Clive Huggan]

One thing I forgot to mention: a great advantage is that you can easily hide
the comments when necessary by re-defining the style as hidden text, in that
document only. This takes only 15 seconds. However, if I want to run off a
PDF or hard copy for someone who doesn¹t need to see them I¹m more likely to
delete the comments altogether by a search-and-replace command (replacing
text in that style with nothing) -- because I usually have my printer set to
print hidden text. This is also quick to do. I immediately follow that with
a Command-z "Undo" command to restore them. If the document is important and
there are many comments, I do it on a Saved As copy.

Clive Huggan
============

This is such an impediment to efficiency that I side-step it altogether by
inserting comments inline with text, either as an AutoText item or manually
keyed -- in both cases preceded by a keyed-in "#" sign for easy finding.

The comment is applied in a style that stands out on the screen and in
print. It takes 3-4 seconds to apply.

Then, if I need to show others the changes that have been made I select
Tools menu -> Track Changes -> Compare Documents, then navigate to the
previous version of the document.

I do this constantly in early versions of some highly collaborative document
development, and everyone is comfortable with it (especially colleagues who
take hard copies on the plane). It takes no longer than Word's "Comment"
facility and keeps control in my (our) hands. And it eliminates increasing
the electronic complexity of the document, which can lead to corruption
(avoiding corruption is a very high priority for me).

More details are on pages 129 and 208 of some notes on the way I use Word
for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a free
download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from North America and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* SUGGESTION -- KEEP REVISITING AFTER YOU POST: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is provided; sometimes you'll be asked for further information. Good tips
about getting the best out of posting are at
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html and
http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari you may see a
blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload the current
page" -- two or more times).
============================================================

Correct. Balloons either show all changes, or none. There is no
equivalent to the old Comments Pane, which would show Comments only.
Please use Help | Send Feedback to let the MacBU know you would like to
be able to control balloons for comments separately. I'll try to
remember to do the same.

There is not actually any way to "elect not to see those particular
balloons"--that's the problem--so I'm not sure what you meant by that.
The Show menu in the Reviewing Toolbar refers to showing Insertions at
all, not just showing in Balloons or not.

You can set the Preferences to color code the types so that if you use
Balloons, the comments will stand out in their own color. That might
help a little.