by Jennie Ruby
Short answer: yes.
You can change the width of the balloons, the color, which margin they appear in, whether that margin has background shading, whether the balloons have lines connecting them to text, and the typeface and type size of the text in the balloons.
The shading of the comments margin is called the Markup Area Highlight, and is controlled by the Show Markup drop-down list.
Most other balloon settings are found in the Track Changes Options dialog box. You find this from the Review tab. Click the bottom half of the Track Changes tool, and select Change Tracking Options.
The background color of the balloons themselves is controlled by the Comments drop-down list in the Markup section. If you choose By author, Word automatically assigns each person who comments on the document a different color. If you choose another color, Word displays all comment balloons on your screen in the color you choose. However, if you send the document to someone else, they will see whatever color their copy of Word is set to display.
The bottom section of the dialog box controls other balloon appearance options.
Those settings are straightforward. But changing the typeface and type size of the text is not so obvious. To do this, you must locate and modify the Balloon Text style.
To find the style, open the Styles pane by clicking the expander arrow at the bottom right of the Styles group on the Home tab. At the bottom of the Styles pane, click the Manage Styles tool.
In the resulting Manage Styles dialog box, set the Sort order to Alphabetical, and select the Balloon Text style. Click the Modify button to select a new typeface and type size for the balloon text. Click OK to modify, then OK to close the Manage Styles dialog box. Your balloons then display their new text style.
These settings apply to all balloons, whether they contain deletions, formatting changes, or comments. If you want to change the typeface and color of comments only, so that they stand out more from the other balloons, follow the same procedure described here, except the style you are looking for is Comment Text. The Comment Text style controls the appearance of comment text when it occurs in balloons and in the Reviewing Pane. However, the size of the comment text in balloons is controlled by the Balloon Text style.
Making the comments and other balloons readable and clear is an important part of gaining acceptance for using tracked changes, and it is important for ensuring that your comments get the attention they need. So get control of your balloons, and get a good review of your document.
Are you an eLearning developer who has been tasked with creating an effective voiceover script? If so, consider attending my Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts class. I also teach the Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts class.
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Microsoft sucks…posts like these makes them usable, Keep it up!
Thanks for your help. Splendid!!! Was completely lost in space.
Whoever designed this in Word should be ashamed of himself
Thanks for your help. Splendid!!! Was completely lost in space.
Whoever designed this in Word should be ashamed of himself
Thanks for your help. Splendid!!! Was completely lost in space.
Whoever designed this in Word should be ashamed of himself
I love you. That is all.
I love you. That is all.
I love you. That is all.
Thank you very much, this is exactly what I was looking for the information is complete.
Thank you very much, this is exactly what I was looking for the information is complete.
Thank you very much, this is exactly what I was looking for the information is complete.
Great! thanks!
Great! thanks!
Great! thanks!
Microsoft sure makes simple things hard to understand. Thanks for the clear explanation 🙂
Microsoft sure makes simple things hard to understand. Thanks for the clear explanation 🙂
Microsoft sure makes simple things hard to understand. Thanks for the clear explanation 🙂
Thank you so much. This has helped ALOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much. This has helped ALOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much. This has helped ALOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks incredibly helpful!!!
Thanks incredibly helpful!!!
Thanks incredibly helpful!!!
This was indeed very helpful. Judging from a Google search for this exact problem, it looks like Word developed a bug quite a long a time ago where it randomly sets your balloon text to all have a font size of 1. And, unlike all other text, you can’t select the text and change the size. Instead you have to find a normally-hidden style and edit it. How on earth would a casual user guess that that’s what you have to do? This, my friends, is what poor user-interface design looks like!
This was indeed very helpful. Judging from a Google search for this exact problem, it looks like Word developed a bug quite a long a time ago where it randomly sets your balloon text to all have a font size of 1. And, unlike all other text, you can’t select the text and change the size. Instead you have to find a normally-hidden style and edit it. How on earth would a casual user guess that that’s what you have to do? This, my friends, is what poor user-interface design looks like!
This was indeed very helpful. Judging from a Google search for this exact problem, it looks like Word developed a bug quite a long a time ago where it randomly sets your balloon text to all have a font size of 1. And, unlike all other text, you can’t select the text and change the size. Instead you have to find a normally-hidden style and edit it. How on earth would a casual user guess that that’s what you have to do? This, my friends, is what poor user-interface design looks like!
How do I get it to STAY at a larger font? I can change it now (thank you!!) but opening a new doc reverts back to 1pt in the balloon text.
How do I get it to STAY at a larger font? I can change it now (thank you!!) but opening a new doc reverts back to 1pt in the balloon text.
How do I get it to STAY at a larger font? I can change it now (thank you!!) but opening a new doc reverts back to 1pt in the balloon text.
Wonderful!! – Resolved an on going problem for the legal team. Could not understand why the text in the balloon had shrunk.. would never have found this area in Word 2010 with out your assistance… Many Thanks….
Wonderful!! – Resolved an on going problem for the legal team. Could not understand why the text in the balloon had shrunk.. would never have found this area in Word 2010 with out your assistance… Many Thanks….
Wonderful!! – Resolved an on going problem for the legal team. Could not understand why the text in the balloon had shrunk.. would never have found this area in Word 2010 with out your assistance… Many Thanks….
I followed the instruction, they were very helpful, thanks dears 🙂
I followed the instruction, they were very helpful, thanks dears 🙂
I followed the instruction, they were very helpful, thanks dears 🙂
Ditto. On behalf of my sanity, THANK YOU!!!
Ditto. On behalf of my sanity, THANK YOU!!!
Ditto. On behalf of my sanity, THANK YOU!!!