When working together on the same document with several co-workers, before making important changes to the document, it is advisable to talk with colleagues to propose the change. If communication is not feasible, we can propose the change through a comment in the working document.
We can also use comments individually, that is, when we are working on a document and we want to make an annotation that invites us to reconsider the text we have written for an alternative one. This is all fine as long as we have the option to print comments if we have the need, either on paper or in a PDF file.
How and why to use comments
The comments in a document allow us to add additional annotations to the text, either explanatory, to offer more information, offer other alternatives to the text as synonyms ... We can also use them to indicate to the rest of the collaborators of the document, that a text must be reviewed, to indicate alternative text.
Once we have added a comment to a text, this will be displayed as a yellow balloon next to the accompanying text. To add a comment, first of all we must select all the text affected by the comment we are making, so that both we and the rest of the people who collaborate in the work know exactly what we mean.
Where they are printed on the page
Depending on the type of document we are working on, the comments when printing them will be displayed in different ways.
- En PagesWhen we print a document that includes comments, they will be displayed in the left margin of the document and are numbered so that we can quickly refer to them.
- En Keynote, Apple's application for creating presentations, comments are printed on the right side of each slide where the documents are located.
- En Numbers, the thing is complicated, since the comments are not shown in the margins of the document, but we are going to find them on a separate sheet that is printed when we want to print (forgive the redundancy) the comments.
Adding comments in Pages
In Pages, as in the rest of the applications that Apple makes available to us to create documents, we can add as many comments as we want. If we want the comments to be useful and not a problem that makes it difficult to interpret them, we must, first of all, select all the text, or words where appropriate, to which the comment refers.
Once we have selected the text or words, we go to the top bar of Pages and select comment. At that moment, a box with rounded edges will be shown where our name is shown (so that we know who has written it). Once that box is shown, we just have to write the annotations. When we write a comment, the day and time we created it is displayed.
Once we have created a comment, we can edit or delete it. We can also reply to our own comments, an option that we can use so that other people can check the changes that the document has shown or so that we ourselves know at all times the changes we have made if we are not working together to create the same commentary.
How to print comments in Pages
To print or export the document to a document so that each and every one of the comments that we have added to our document is displayed, we must access the printing panel through the File> Print menu. Next we must check the Print comments box.
How to add comments in Numbers
Adding a comment in Numbers is as simple as select the element to which we want to add a comment either a table or a graph and click on the comment button located at the top of the application. As we can see in the image, the comment will be displayed in a different way than the one shown in both Pages and Keynote, especially if it is related to a graph.
All the comments that we add to a document, we can edit or delete them. The comments we write, can be answered by the rest of the people that make up the working group who is working on the same document, or by ourselves if we want to keep track of the changes we are making in the document at all times.
How to print comments in Numbers
To print or export a spreadsheet that we have created in Numbers and all the comments that we have added to our document are displayed, we must access the printing panel through the File> Print menu. Next we must check the Print comments box.
Adding comments in Keynote
Adding comments in Keynote, as in the rest of Apple's office applications, is as simple as previously select the text or words that we want to comment / review / share and click on the comment box located at the top of the application.
Next, we write the comment. If the box is too small to show how long the comment is, we can change its size. To do this, we just have to place the mouse arrow on one of the sides, upper or lower, until two arrows are shown, arrows that indicate that in directions we can expand or reduce the size of the comment.
As in Pages and Numbers, once we have created a comment, we can edit or delete it. In addition, we can answer our own comments, an option that we can use so that the rest of the colleagues know the changes that the document has received or so that we know at all times the changes we have made and thus be able to keep a guide for modifications.
How to print comments in Keynote
To print or export to a Keynote document so that each and every comment that we have added to our document is displayed, we must access the printing panel through the File> Print menu. Next we must check the Include comments box, option found in the Slide Layout section.
I can't find the option to print comments
The ability to print comments in Word, Excel and Powerpoint practically goes back to the origins of fire: has always been present. However, it seems that Apple recently realized that this feature was not available. This is a problem for users who do not have the ability to install the latest version of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
In order to print the comments of the documents that we create with Pages, Numbers and Keynote it is necessary to have installed version 10.0 or higher of these applications, version that was released on March 31, 2020. This version is compatible with macOS 10.14 Mojave or higher. You have an older version of macOS, you won't be able to download older versions.