How To Hide Comments In Word: Step-By-Step Visibility Control

I still remember the first time a client saw my Word doc with 50+ comments visible. Their face said it all—overwhelming doesn’t cover it.

Hiding comments in Word takes 3 clicks once you know where to look. The trick is using the Review tab, not the View tab like most tutorials claim. Works the same in Word 2016 through 365.

You’ll get a clean document view while keeping all feedback intact for later. No data loss, no formatting changes, just visual simplicity. The comments reappear just as easily when you need them.

Between you and me, this saved my last presentation from looking like a high school essay. Here’s exactly how to do it.

What Youll Need

Step-by-Step Instructions for Hiding Comments in Word

Here’s the cleanest way I know to toggle comment visibility without losing the content.

Launch Microsoft Word and open your document. I always start by clicking the Review tab in the ribbon—this is where all comment controls live. Look for the Comments button in the Tracking group.

If you don’t see any comments listed in the pane, click Show Comments first. This ensures the sidebar appears with all annotations visible before you begin hiding them.

In the Review tab, find the Show Comments button again. Click it once to hide all comments from view. The pane will collapse, but the comments remain in the document, just invisible.

You’ll notice the document text shifts slightly as the comment bubbles disappear. This is normal—the content stays intact, and you can restore visibility anytime by clicking Show Comments again.

For more control, click the Display for Review dropdown in the Tracking group. Select No Markup to hide comments, tracked changes, and formatting marks all at once.

This is my go-to when finalizing a document. It gives a clean view of the text as it would appear without any annotations. To confirm it worked, scroll through the document—no comment bubbles should appear.

If you only want to hide comments from certain people, click the Reviewing Pane dropdown in the Review tab and select Vertical or Horizontal to open the detailed pane.

In the pane, click the Filter dropdown and uncheck the reviewers whose comments you want to hide. The comments will disappear immediately, but they’re still part of the document’s metadata.

After hiding comments, scroll through the entire document to ensure no annotations remain visible. Check headers, footers, and tables—comments can appear in unexpected places.

Save the document with Ctrl + S to preserve the hidden state. When you or another user reopens it, the comments will stay hidden unless someone toggles Show Comments or changes the Display for Review setting.

Tips and Common Mistakes

These practical pointers will help you master comment visibility in Word without frustration.

The Quick Toggle: In Step 2, the Show Comments button is your best friend for instant visibility control. Click it once to hide all comments, then click again to restore them. This is perfect when you just need a clean view temporarily but want to keep the feedback intact for later.

Permanent Hide Trick: For Step 3, unchecking Show comments in the Track Changes Options dialog ensures comments stay hidden even after reopening the document. This is ideal if you’re sharing a final draft but want to preserve the feedback for your own reference.

Printing Perfection: In Step 4, remember that Print Markup set to None is the only way to guarantee comments won’t appear on physical copies or PDFs. Always preview first—you’d be surprised how often this gets overlooked in a rush to print.

Verification Habit: After Step 5, develop the habit of reopening your saved document to confirm comments remain hidden. I learned this the hard way after sending a “final” version that still showed all the feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions

Hiding comments in Word is a simple yet powerful way to keep your document clean and professional. With just a few clicks, you can toggle visibility or remove them entirely. Try practicing these steps in a test document to master the process, and soon you’ll handle comments like a pro! 🎯