How to Print Word Document With Color Comments Visible Inline

When you print a Word document that contains tracked changes and comments, the default print settings often hide those comments or print them in a separate list at the end of the document. You want the comments to appear inline — right next to the text they refer to — and in color so reviewers can see them clearly. This article explains how to configure Word’s print settings to show comments inline and in color on the printed page. You will learn to set the correct markup view, adjust print layout options, and verify the output before printing.

Why Comments Appear as a List Instead of Inline When Printing

Word stores comments in a separate layer of the document. By default, the Print dialog prints only the main document content unless you explicitly enable the Print Markup option. When Print Markup is turned off, comments are omitted entirely. When it is turned on but the document view is set to Simple Markup or No Markup, Word prints comments in a list at the end of the document instead of inline. The color of comments is determined by the reviewer color assigned in Word’s settings — each reviewer gets a unique color by default, but you can also assign specific colors. To print comments inline and in color, you must set the correct on-screen view and enable the Print Markup option in the Print dialog.

How Word Assigns Comment Colors

Word automatically assigns a color to each reviewer when they add a comment. The colors are drawn from a fixed palette: red, blue, green, purple, orange, and others. If a reviewer adds multiple comments, all their comments appear in the same color. You can change a reviewer’s color by going to File > Options > General > User name and then changing the initials or name, but Word reassigns colors based on the order reviewers appear in the document. There is no direct setting to pick a specific color for a specific reviewer. The color appears both on screen and in the printed output when Print Markup is enabled.

Steps to Print Word Document With Color Comments Visible Inline

Follow these steps to ensure that comments appear inline and in color on the printed page. The key is to set the correct on-screen view before opening the Print dialog.

1. Open the document and switch to All Markup view
   Go to the Review tab. In the Tracking group, click the Display for Review drop-down list. Select All Markup. This view shows every tracked change and comment balloon inline in the document. If you select Simple Markup or No Markup, comments will not appear inline when printed.
2. Verify that comments are visible on screen
   Scroll through the document and confirm that comment balloons appear in the right margin or inline, depending on your Word version. In Word for Microsoft 365 and Word 2021, comments appear as balloons in the right margin. In Word 2019 and earlier, comments appear as balloons or as inline text depending on the Show Comments setting. If you do not see any comment balloons, click Review > Show Comments to toggle them on.
3. Open the Print dialog
   Press Ctrl+P or go to File > Print. The Print preview pane opens showing a preview of how the document will look on paper.
4. Enable Print Markup
   Under the Settings section, click the first drop-down list (currently showing Print All Pages or a similar option). Scroll down and check the box next to Print Markup. A checkmark indicates that comments and tracked changes will be printed. The preview image updates to show comment balloons and inline markup in color.
5. Choose a color printer
   If your printer supports color, ensure it is selected in the Printer drop-down list. If you select a black-and-white printer, comments print in grayscale. For color comments, you must use a color printer and select the Color option under Printer Properties if it is not already set.
6. Print a single test page
   Click the page number box in the Print dialog and enter a page number that contains at least one comment. Then click the Print button to print only that page. This allows you to verify that comments appear inline and in color without wasting paper.
7. Adjust comment color if needed
   If the comment color is too light or hard to read, you cannot change the color directly for each comment. However, you can change the color of the comment balloon background by going to File > Options > General > User name, changing the user name, and then adding a new comment. That new comment will get a different color from the palette. Alternatively, you can open the document in Word Online, which uses a different color palette, and then print from there.

If Comments Still Print as a List or Do Not Appear

Comments print at the end of the document instead of inline

This happens when the Print Markup option is enabled but the Display for Review is set to Simple Markup. Simple Markup hides the inline comment balloons and prints them as a list at the end. To fix this, go to Review > Display for Review and change it to All Markup before printing. If the document contains tracked changes, All Markup also shows every insertion and deletion inline, which may make the document harder to read. In that case, you can set Display for Review to All Markup only for printing, then switch it back to Simple Markup afterward.

Comments appear in black and white instead of color

The most common cause is that the printer is set to print in grayscale. Open the Print dialog, click Printer Properties (or Preferences, depending on the printer driver), and change the color setting to Color or Automatic. If the printer driver does not have a color option, the printer may be a monochrome device. You cannot force a black-and-white printer to print in color. In that case, consider exporting the document to PDF and printing the PDF from a color printer.

Comments are missing entirely from the printed output

This occurs when the Print Markup check box is not selected. Open the Print dialog again and verify that Print Markup has a checkmark. If the check box is grayed out, the document may be protected or in a format that does not support comments. Unprotect the document by going to Review > Restrict Editing and clicking Stop Protection. If the document is in .doc format (Word 97–2003), comments are supported, but the Print Markup option still works. If the document is in .txt or .rtf format, comments are not supported at all.

Word Online vs Desktop: Print Comments Inline Settings

Feature	Word Desktop (Microsoft 365)	Word Online
Print Markup option	Available in File > Print > Settings	Not available — comments always print inline when Print Markup is on
All Markup view required	Yes, must be set before printing	No, Word Online uses a fixed view that includes comments
Comment color control	Automatic per reviewer, can change user name to get a different color	Automatic per reviewer, no user name change affects existing comments
Print preview shows comments	Yes, updates immediately when Print Markup is toggled	Yes, shows comments in the preview

Word Online does not have a separate Print Markup toggle. It prints comments inline by default when you open the Print dialog. However, Word Online does not support printing tracked changes inline — only comments. If the document contains tracked changes, Word Online prints the final version without markup. For full control over both comments and tracked changes, use the Word desktop application.

You can now print a Word document with color comments visible inline by setting the view to All Markup and enabling Print Markup in the Print dialog. Always print a test page first to confirm the output. For future documents, consider setting the default print layout to include Print Markup by creating a custom print template. An advanced tip: to print only the comments without the main document text, use the List of Markup option in the Print dialog instead of Print Markup.