Adding Comments to a Microsoft Word Document

Steve MillerApril 12, 2008

English Department Technology Professional Development #2

Part I: Adding a Comment Manually

Step 1

• Have students email you their essays instead of turning in on paper.

• Make sure you have them send you the essay as a Word document attachment not PDF.

• Have students write their name and period on the subject line of the email so that you will know who the email is from.

Step 2

• Open up an individual email and save the attachment to your desktop, flash drive, or some other storage system.

• You might want to create folders for each period prior to saving any essays (right-click on mouse>new>folder>name folder).

• It’ll prevent having over 100 file icons on your desktop.

Step 3

• Open up the word document for that student and begin reading.

Step 4

• When you come across a place in which you want to add a comment do the following:– Insert>Comment

• Your screen should look like this

Step 5

• Type in your comment

Step 6

• To exit comments and continue reading, click anywhere else in the text of the essay. To add more comments, just repeat steps 1-6.

Part II: Adding Comments Using a Macro

A macro is like a program inside of another program. It helps you to automate repetitive tasks so that you only have to hit one or two

keys to perform a more complicated task. Here’s how you

do it.

Step 4

• Instead of just adding the comment manually you first need to create the macro.

• Tools>Macro>Record New Macro.

Step 5

• Name your macro. • I would name it according to what

comment you want to insert (i.e. spelling, capitalization, etc.)

• Click on either “Toolbars” to add an icon on the toolbar or click on “Keyboard” to add a shortcut key.

• Once you have named it and chosen “Toolbars” or “Keyboard”, hit “OK”.

Step 6

• Name your shortcut.

• For example for the “singular not plural” comment you might choose ALT+S.

• Click "Assign" and then "Close". EVERYTHING YOU CLICK OR TYPE WILL BE RECORDED FROM THIS POINT ON.

Step 7

• Follow Part I: Steps 4 and 5. Be very careful on what you type or click on.

Step 8

• To end the recording – Tools>Macro>Stop Recording Macro.

• From this point on every time you enter that shortcut key it will insert that specific comment.

• For each new comment you want to automate you’ll have to repeat Part II again.

• It sounds like a lot of work, but once you do this, it’ll make the process much easier.

Others Uses of Comments?

1. Use comments when highlighting specific parts of an essay (i.e. attention-getter, thesis statement, topic sentences, concrete details, commentary, concluding sentences, etc.)

¿Preguntas?