Anonymizing comments in Word

[njtt]

I am currently refereeing a paper for an academic journal, and am attempting to use the MS Word comment feature to provide comments on specific passages. As is the standard custom, I am supposed to be an anonymous referee. However, Word insists on heading every comment with my initials (I am not even sure where it is getting them from - perhaps I used them when I installed Word), and when I mouse over any of the comments it pops up a tool tip with my name in it (this, I think, is probably derived from the name of my Window 7 user account).

Is there some way I can prevent Word from displaying this identifying information (and, ideally, from containing it in any form) when the file is returned to the original author?

If it makes a difference, I am using Word 2003 (yes I know it is outdated, but I am poor) under Windows 7.

[Inner_Stickler]

I believe if you go Tools>Options>Security>Check Remove personal information from file properties on Save that should anonymize your comments. I don’t have Word 2003 so I can’t test it myself.

[njtt]

Thanks. It looks like that has worked. (It has also, for some reason, changed the color of all the comment boxes from pink to purple, but that is OK.)

[Frumpy_Jones]

Word chooses a random color per commenter (There can be several in one document).

To change the color: From the top toolbar in Word, click on Tools -> Options -> Track Changes tab. Then under the Markup section, simply change the Comments color to whatever you desire.

[Scarlett67]

For future reference, you could also go to Tools > Options > User Information and change your name/initials to something anonymous such as “Reviewer.”

[moriah]

@Scarlett67

For future reference, you could also go to Tools > Options > User Information and change your name/initials to something anonymous such as “Reviewer.”

Or “Ed Tittor.”

Or “Red Leyener.”

Or “Gram Marnahtzee”

Or “Ima Judghew”

Or “Noman.”*

*For cyclopean authors only.

[Rhythmdvl]

We have to something similar from time to time, usually when a subcontractor forgets to change their computer’s names to our corporate identity. It’s a bit more in-depth but it allows you to set names attached to comments and tracked changes to whatever you want. It often takes a bit of finenessed search-n-replacing to get a good final product, but YMMV.

Basically, Word’s .docx file format is a .zip file. In short, we change the document’s extension to .zip, change key files within and resave. It’s a tiny bit more involved than that, but that’s the basics.

Here is a good explanationof what files to look for. It’s short, but I don’t want to step on any copyright toes or link past another site’s content by pasting in the whole thing. I will share their warning:

Understand that doing this is probably a bad idea. The spec suggests that changing the authors of revisions and comments shouldn’t cause trouble with other parts of the document, but who knows whether that’s true in all cases, and in any event it’s pretty easy to make mistakes with these kinds of changes unless you’re just doing simple global search/replace operations. If you still want to take the risk, be sure to create backups of everything first.

Note that though I always save a backup, I’ve been doing this for years without running into a problem. Most of the files are 200+ pages, have multiple peer reviewers, and have passed through several computers (and do so again after I send out later drafts). These also head into design (Quark and InDesign) and I haven’t run into issues. Not that issues aren’t possible, just that it’s a fairly sound method.

[kaemicha]

I’m not doing so well with this great information since I can’t even find Tools, in Word ('07).

[Lord_Mondegreen]

@kaemicha

I’m not doing so well with this great information since I can’t even find Tools, in Word ('07).

Click on the symbol (chevron?) in the upper left corner. Select “Word Options.” Click on the “Popular” tab, and the options for “User name” and “Initials” are in there.

[kaemicha]

@Lord_Mondegreen

Click on the symbol (chevron?) in the upper left corner. Select “Word Options.” Click on the “Popular” tab, and the options for “User name” and “Initials” are in there.

Thank you! I never knew that was how to do it!!

[SmartAlecCat]

Don’t do it like that.

Open up the document in one window, make a new document in another window.

For each comment you want to make, note the page and line number(s) and cut/paste any relevant passages, then put your comment:

p. 3, l. 3-6 “Something he wrote I don’t like”

What I don’t like about it.

p. 4, l. 9-17 “Something else.”

This is just dead wrong, you should read Foo’s paper “This or That”.

[Rhythmdvl]

@SmartAlecCat

Don’t do it like that.

Open up the document in one window, make a new document in another window.

For each comment you want to make, note the page and line number(s) and cut/paste any relevant passages, then put your comment:

Whoosh or not, just the thought was enough to drive me crying under my desk. The question remains: are you a sadist or a masochist?

[Scarlett67]

I’m a freelance copyeditor. I once had an author who didn’t understand how to use/view Track Changes in Word (SOP in editing manuscripts). So instead of just making my edits with tracking on, she wanted me to manually bold every change, and then insert a comment explaining what I had done.

This would have changed (for example):

1. delete comma, type a semicolon (2 keystrokes)

into

1. manually bold semicolon (4 keystrokes)
2. open a comment (3 keystrokes)
   3: type “deleted comma, inserted semicolon” (33 keystrokes)

for a one-character change. Plus removing all the fake bold and unnecessary comments on cleanup.

Fortunately my client, the publisher, straightened her out.

[Scarlett67]

Oh crap, I left out a step or two (multitasking), but you get the idea.