When working with a word document, you can add comments as feedback. A timestamp will display following the author's name in the comment balloons as below:
If you want to remove the timestamps from the comment balloons, please follow the steps below:
Method 1: Reduce the Comment Column Width
By default, the comment column width is about 3.7 inch (or 9.4 cm). When you reduce the comment column width (e.g., 2.5 inch"), the timestamps will disappear. Please see how to reduce the comment column width.
Method 2: Zip Document
If you want to keep the column structure and do not reduce the comment column width, please follow the steps below to remove the timestamps:
Step 1: Close the document from the folder and change the document extension from ".docx" to ".zip", please make sure the box "File name extensions" is checked in the folder ribbon;
Step 2: A warning message appears to confirm the change, and click "Yes";
Step 3: Right-click on the zip file and click "Extract file";
Step 4: Navigate to the location (e.g., Desktop) you are going to extract your file;
Step 5: Open the extracted folder (e.g., "Remove Timestamps") and click the "Word" folder;
Step 6: Right click "Comments.xml" file and open with "Notepad";
Step 7: In the text file, replace all the phases of "w:date" with "w:ignore" by using the shortcut "Ctrl+H" or clicking "Replace" from the "Edit" tab, and save the changes by clicking "Save" in the "File" tab;
Step 8: Right click the "document.xml" file and open with "Notepad", and replace all the phases of "w:date" with "w:ignore";
Step 9: Back the folder with the extracted documents, select all 4 items, right click and select "Send to" from the dialog box, then select "Compressed (zipped) folder";
Step 10: Change the extension of the compressed file from ".zip" to ".docx". A warning message appears confirming the changes and click "Yes";
Step 11: Open the word file again and the timestamps disappeared.
