Why are "modern" comments in such a huge font?

Question

Why are "modern" comments in such a huge font?

White, David Jonathan 20

I have started using MS Word and with recent updates, the text in a comment is now huge. The text is so huge that lenghty comments cannot fit and you have now removed my ability to change the text size. This seems a giant leap backwards.

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Answer accepted by question author

Stefan Blom 357.3K MVP Volunteer Moderator

If you look at the document preview at File > Print, is the text size for comments normal there?

White, David Jonathan 20 Reputation points

2026-10-30T13:32:16.2266667+00:00

Yes, but the original problam still persists. I am proofing a document and need the original author to see all of my comments.
Stefan Blom 357.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T13:45:08.72+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. Now we know that this is a display issue.

Could you upload a screen shot which illustrates what you see? Obviously, you shouldn't upload something that you can't share.

If you click Show Comments in the Comments group on the Review tab, is the selected view Contextual or List? In the screen show, I have selected the Contextual view. On the far left, I have the Reviewing Pane (Revisions Pane) displayed for comparison.
White, David Jonathan 20 Reputation points

2026-10-30T14:32:38.03+00:00

Here is a screenshot.

Note that the comments text is much bigger than the text in the original document. I cannot tell what the font is since I am no longer able to adjust the font on the comments, but I would guess it is around 36 pitch.
Stefan Blom 357.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T16:39:54.7833333+00:00

Here is a screenshot.

Unfortunately, your screen shot failed to upload. You can paste in a screen shot, but you have to click the Insert image button to confirm.
Stefan Blom 357.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T16:42:29.64+00:00

Comment text size will increase as you increase the zoom of the document, but doing so would affect the size of all the document content of course.

2 additional answers

Your answer

White, David Jonathan 20 Reputation points

2026-10-30T13:32:16.2266667+00:00

Yes, but the original problam still persists. I am proofing a document and need the original author to see all of my comments.
Stefan Blom 357.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T13:45:08.72+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. Now we know that this is a display issue.

Could you upload a screen shot which illustrates what you see? Obviously, you shouldn't upload something that you can't share.

If you click Show Comments in the Comments group on the Review tab, is the selected view Contextual or List? In the screen show, I have selected the Contextual view. On the far left, I have the Reviewing Pane (Revisions Pane) displayed for comparison.
White, David Jonathan 20 Reputation points

2026-10-30T14:32:38.03+00:00

Here is a screenshot.

Note that the comments text is much bigger than the text in the original document. I cannot tell what the font is since I am no longer able to adjust the font on the comments, but I would guess it is around 36 pitch.
Stefan Blom 357.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T16:39:54.7833333+00:00

Here is a screenshot.

Unfortunately, your screen shot failed to upload. You can paste in a screen shot, but you have to click the Insert image button to confirm.
Stefan Blom 357.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T16:42:29.64+00:00

Comment text size will increase as you increase the zoom of the document, but doing so would affect the size of all the document content of course.

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Modern comments in Word have limited formatting support. Font size changes are not supported in modern comments, so the large text in the comment box cannot be adjusted there.

Supported formatting in modern comments is limited to:

Bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough
Font colors
Highlighting

Modern comments do not support:

Changing font size
Changing font styles
Paragraph settings

If this is blocking the workflow, there are two supported workarounds:

Temporarily turn off modern comments and use the older comment model:
- In Windows: File > Options
- On the General tab, clear Enable modern comments
- Restart Word
If unsupported formatting from older comments needs to be viewed, open the Reviewing Pane:
- Go to the Review tab
- Select Reviewing Pane

The option to disable modern comments is temporary and will be removed in the future.

References:

Using Modern comments in Word | Microsoft Support