Wellllll, yes & no
In Word Options> Trust Center click the Trust Center Settings button &
select Privacy in the left column. There's a checkbox labeled "Make hidden
markup visible when opening or saving". You can clear the check - BUT - the
group it's in is explicitly captioned Document-specific Settings & I've
**not** found that to be the case. Having tested it in several 2007
installations the setting change always applies globally, not to just the
document open at the time. Unless someone else can explain where I'm going
wrong I'd avoid it like the plague.
Besides, "hiding" the marup doesn't remove it from the document, so even if
the setting worked as advertised anyone who opens the document would still
have the option to display the markup. Also, if you can't see it it's easier
to forget it's there, which makes it imperative that every document be
checked before release in order to avoid embarrasing & costly revelations
that continue to lurk beneath the surface.