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React to comments in Word for the web

Feature deep dive
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Hi, Office Insiders! I’m Ali Forelli, a Product Manager on the Word team working on collaboration features. I’m happy to announce that you can now like comments in Word for the web documents.

React to comments

Comments are a key component of effective collaboration in Word documents. We heard from many of you that you wanted to be able to convey your reaction to a comment, like you do in Teams or other social media apps. That’s why the Word team has added the ability for collaborators to react to each other’s comments.

Previously, users would often find themselves typing replies like “+1” to convey agreement. Now you can simply click a button to “upvote” a response, agree with a sentiment, or acknowledge that you’ve read a collaborator’s feedback.

Word document with comments with Like reactions

 

How it works

  1. Open a document that already contains comments, and either react to an existing comment or add a new one.
  2. To react to a comment, click the Like button in the top right corner of the comment box.

     

    comment with 3 Likes

     

  3. To remove your reaction, simply click the Like button again.

 

Animation showing how to remove a comment reaction

Tips and tricks

  • The root comment in a thread will have an empty Like button visible, which will change color and show a number indicating how many users have liked the comment. For replies to the root comment, you need to click to expand the thread, then hover over the specific reply to see the empty Like.
  • When you hover over the Like button for a comment that has existing likes, a list of usernames will appear, showing who has liked the comment so far. This list will update in real time while collaborating on your document in Word for the web.
  • To react to a comment without using your mouse, press Alt+F12 to navigate to the comment thread, and then press the Tab key to select the Like. You can press Enter or Spacebar to click the Like button, and Alt+Down arrow key to expand the user list, allowing you to move through the list using the Up and Down arrow keys.
  • To “like” a comment below the top comment in a thread, press the Down arrow to move through the list of comment replies until you get to the desired comment, then repeat the steps above to “like” that particular reply.

Known issues

  • Collaborators on other platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android) will not be able to see the comment reactions. There currently are no notifications for reactions to comments, but the Word product team is working on adding notifications and support for reactions on more platforms soon!
  • There may be cases in which comment reactions are not available when editing older documents. In these cases, the old comments will not have a Like button. However, you can add a new comment in the document and use the Like button functionality in that comment.

Availability 

The Like button is currently rolling out and will be available to all users in Word for the web.

Feedback 

We want to hear from you! Please submit your comments and feedback by selecting  Help > Feedback.

Learn more about what other information you should include in your feedback to ensure it’s actionable and reaches the right people.

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