Writing & Grammar: Can I Change the Appearance of Balloons in Word 2007?

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.

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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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About the Author:  Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. She is a publishing professional with more than 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

Comments

[Mary Bercik]

You are a genius. My hero. I'm not sure how you figured it out, but THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Whomever programmed that into Windows 7 will have some really bad karma to work off in another life.

[NM]

Thanks - this is very helpful!
My Word doesn't contain the "Balloon Text" nor "Comment Text" styles.
Is there a way to define these styles by myself and relate them specifically to Balloons and Comments?
NM

[EM]

Thank you *so* much! This works in Word 2010 too. I am so grateful for your expert advice; I would never have found my own way to the solution. I was going distracted and wasting such a lot of time ...

[Luis]

Thanks!

[Keith Miller]

Thanks for that; just another feature that was trivial to deal with in Office 2003, and obscure to the point of insanity in Word 2007+. 3 cheers for M$ and that asinine ribbon.

[Boaz]

Dear Jennie ,
You are second to none!!! Thanks so much

[Jane J]

ur a star ^_^

thanks a lot

[Michele]

OMG! Just spent 45 minutes trying to find how to do this in W 2010 on my own and your answer worked first time! Very clear, concise instructions. Thank you, thank you, thank you! (now I hope I remember this!)

[Kathleen]

Tried to go through this but still can't figure it out -- I have Word for Mac 2011. The "show markup" preferences don't allow me to change font or anything in balloon text (just turn it on or off); and when I go to styles I can't find "balloon text." Any ideas?

[Kathleen]

Ah okay -- this one works:

Select Format > Styles in the main menu bar
In the list to the left, click on Balloon Text
Click on the Modify button
In the Formatting category, select a larger size
If you want this change to apply to new documents, check Add to template
Click on OK
Click on Close

[Victor D]

You complete me. Thank you.

[Andy Fernandez]

Your a genius!

[Mofs]

I used to be able to change the font size in the balloon/commnet text using the above procedure, but it suddenly stopped working.
I even tried making a New Style but it somehow ends up changing the main body text. What gives????

[Rob]

thank you thank you thank you. I cannot tell you how annoying, discouraging, and outright demoralizing trying to get the comments to appear at a decent size was for me.