We need to change the style of the comment balloons in order to add a number.Ĭlick inside a comment balloon and press Ctrl+Shift+S (all at the same time, in that order) to display the Apply Styles pane: How do I change the comment balloon style and numbering? Microsoft does have a habit of “simplifying” its Office interfaces, and the numbers do change with context (if you remove Comment 2, Comment 3 will be labelled Comment 2, etc.) but I have always found it useful to have numbers in my comment balloons. In Word 20, the default setting is for comment balloons not to have numbers. Where have the comment balloon numbers gone in Word? Incidentally, this also signposts you to how to change the style of your comment balloon in general.
This article covers what to do to add comment balloon numbering back in Word 20.
I have already published a range of posts on issues with comment boxes or comment balloons, including ones on comment boxes suddenly going tiny, or comment box text running in the wrong direction, changing the language in your comment balloons.
