Comments won't print in Word 2007

[Jo]

This is driving me nuts. When I print the document, the comments suddenly
won't print unless I fiddle with the settings, and yet there doesn't seem to
be anything that's actually changed. It's almost like a superstitious ritual
that Word needs me to go through.

I have the Review settings to "Final Showing Markup," and below that "Show
Markup" is set to all items and all reviewers, and below that "Reviewing
Pane" is not selected (meaning it displays the comments in balloons at the
side). The Balloons setting is set to show only comments and formatting.
Track Changes is OFF.

When I start to print it, it shows the comments as a highlighted with the
comment number next to it, but it won't print the comment balloon/text at the
side. However, it does print the space at the right side that would hold the
comment; it's just that it's blank except for the usual greyed-out shading.

The ritual I go through that somehow resets it is:
- I print on paper and see that it's not printing the comments.
- I try printing to a file (using a PDF-printing utility), which usually
doesn't work the first time.
- Then I try unsetting and resetting the Review settings (mentioned above).
- I try printing to file again and it usually prints okay then.
- I try printing to paper and see that it still doesn't work.
- Then I try printing just one page on which there's a comment, and often
that works, although sometimes I have to go back and fiddle with the previous
attempts again.
- Once I have it printing to paper okay for the one page, I print the whole
document and it's usually okay.

None of this seems to work the same way twice, but there's something to this
sequence that finally somehow works. The settings that are in effect when it
finally prints correctly are no different than when I try to print the first
time when it doesn't work.

The weird thing is that I never saw this happen until one day I wanted to
print the document without the comments and I changed the top Review setting
to "Final." Since then, even though that setting has been at "Final Showing
Markup" I've had the problem.

This is driving me mad. If someone could please help me figure this out, I
would really appreciate it. It's creating so much more time to print out
documents when I have to fiddle with it like this, and I usually print these
kinds of commented documents only just before a meeting, which is maddening
with the time crunch it creates! Thanks very much in advance for help with
this.

Jo.

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Does your Print dialog (the box that opens when you press Ctrl-P) have
a drop-down for "Print What?"? (My HP printers do, but maybe some
printers don't.) In that list, choose "Document with Markup."

 

[Haggisen]

Turn off shading

I had the exact same problem, with its unpredictable "now you see it, now you don't" aspects. Keeping that in mind, here is something that finally worked for me: I turned off the shading of the comments/changes part of the page. My Word version is a non-English one, so the following references may not be exactly the ones you see:
In Review, look int the Review field (where you turn on/off Track changes etc.). The second icon on the right (Show markings) has a choice for shading of the comment area (fifth tick mark from top). Turn it off and watch the grey shading disappear. Then try to print with all the appropriate options. Worked for me!

 

[jamesbernie]

I had the exact same problem and this is the solution:

1. Click on the File menu.
2. Click on Options (near the bottom)
3. Click on Display.
4. Remove the tick from "Show highlighter marks" (so that it's un-ticked).
5. Click Okay.

That's it.