How to number comments in Word, and why the numbers disappeared

1Why modern comments have no numbers

Classic comments were balloons in the margin, labelled with the reviewer’s initials and a running number, such as [JB3]. Modern comments were redesigned around conversations — threads, replies, @mentions and a Resolve button — shown as cards beside the text or in a Comments pane. The running number did not survive the redesign, and there is no setting that turns it back on for modern comments.

2Switch back to classic comments, then number them

This depends on your Word version still offering the switch. Microsoft has added and removed it across builds, so check first.

1. File › Options › General. If there is a box Enable modern comments, untick it and restart Word. If there is no such box, this method is not available to you.
2. Open the Styles pane with Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S, click Options… and set Select styles to show to All styles.
3. Find Comment Text, choose Modify › Format › Numbering, and pick a numbering format.

The numbers appear in the balloons. The catch: everyone who opens the document needs the same setting to see them, and a colleague on modern comments sees no numbers at all.

3Write the numbers into the comments with a macro

If everyone must see the same numbers whatever their settings, the numbers have to be in the comment text itself. This macro puts [1], [2]… at the start of every comment and reply, in document order.

' Prefixes every comment with its number. Run it on a copy of the document.
Sub NumberComments()
    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To ActiveDocument.Comments.Count
        ActiveDocument.Comments(i).Range.InsertBefore "[" & i & "] "
    Next i
End Sub

Before you run it, know what you are signing up for:

• It changes the comments. Every reviewer sees the numbers as part of the text, and they end up in anything exported from the document.
• Numbers go stale. Add a comment on page 2 and every number after it is now wrong; running the macro again adds a second set.
• Replies get their own numbers. A reply to comment 5 becomes comment 6, not 5.1.

4Keep a numbered list outside the document

The approach that leaves the document alone: export the comments to Excel, where each row gets a number, the commented text and the page. Quote “comment 23” from the sheet. The steps, including a macro, are in how to export Word comments to Excel.

The weak spot is finding comment 23 back in Word. Word’s Go To (F5, then Comment) steps to the next or previous comment, optionally by one reviewer, but you are counting clicks.

5A numbered pane that stays in step: Comment Navigator

Comment Navigator is a Word add-in for Windows. In the free version, its review pane numbers every comment in document order and every reply under it: 1, 2, 2.1, 2.2. Each row shows the section heading it sits under.

• A Go to # box jumps straight to comment 23 (or 23.1) in the document.
• The numbers are not written into the document, so nobody else’s view changes and nothing goes stale.
• Export to Excel uses the same numbers, so the sheet and the pane agree.
• Pro numbers tracked changes too, as T1, T2…

6Questions

Do the numbers stay the same when comments are added?

No, in any tool, because the numbers follow document order: a new comment on page 2 shifts every number after it. Quote numbers from a list made at one moment, such as an exported sheet, and say which version of the document it was made from. Comment Navigator’s import matches answers by a hidden ID rather than the number, so renumbering does not send an answer to the wrong comment.

Can I number comments by reviewer, like JB3?

Classic comments did that in the balloon. The macro above could be changed to prefix c.Initial and a per-reviewer counter, with the same staleness problem.

Does Word’s Comments pane show numbers?

No. It lists modern comments as cards, in document order, without numbers.