Microsoft Word 2013 – Hide Markup Area When Printing

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

 

[Update]: I have found a solution to remove the markup area instead of hiding it.

 

When you try to print your document in Microsoft Word 2013 (I’m now using Microsoft Word 2013 beta version), be warn that there maybe a huge blank space on the right hand side which is colored in light silver / gray color. This may happen when you have a long document. When I first encountered this problem, I was shock as there was no such blank space on the right in my document and the page layout was set correctly in Word. Later I found out that this blank area is call Markup Area where users can write their comments, highlights or changes at there. Although I didn’t write any comment there, yet the Markup Area show up every time I try to print the document.

 

I have no idea why this is turn on by itself, but if you want to get rip off that Markup Area, just go to Review at the top of the menu, look for Simple Markup, change it to Original. This should fix the problem and hide the markup area when you try to print your document.

 

by Ooi Keng Siang via Ooiks’s Blog

41 thoughts on “Microsoft Word 2013 – Hide Markup Area When Printing”

  1. This is so annoying – but to me this happens every time I open any document now. Everything was alright until I used tracking on a random document that I was working on. Once. Ever since, Word opens every document with the All Markup setting automatically eating away 30% of my screen when in Web Layout mode, which is what I work on most of the time. Curiously, new documents open in Print Layout and don’t have the tracking area…

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  3. Pingback: Microsoft Word 2013 – Remove Markup Area | Ooiks's Blog

  4. We went to Office 2013 yesterday and I’ve been trying to fix this for over an hour. Since you had the identical problem,I figured I’d found my answer, but after changing my setting to Original, it still printed a Markup area (it looks right in Print Layout mode, but when I do a Print Preview, the Markup area redisplays). Any idea what might be going on?

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  5. Well, you can remove the markup from the print menu by clicking on the first pull-down menu box under Print >Settings (normally “print all pages” is selected here). At the bottom you will see a little list of items, including “Print markup” which will be checked if you have that problem.

    However, this does not mean that the next time you open it it will default to not printing markups, because that is not the case. It is annoying.

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    1. totally annoying. Again, I like having the bubbles / notes, but there NEEDS to be a way to permanently stop automatically assuming the markups should be printed.

      PLEASE MS… please change this… tons of stupid time wasted turning this off on different documents.

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  6. What I have on the document, showing vertical lines signifying changes – is the only thing showing on the document. I want the vertical lines to print but when I go to print view, some of the markup shows (dates that were changed, showing both dates, for example) and my document is not aligned properly vertically…

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  8. Pingback: MS Word Markup Area 숨기기 | NPD3

  9. Great. Markup Area can be removed from the review tab, but not permanently. Any suggestions, or is this a permanent problem that Microsoft have created? What happened to – “If it ain’t broke dont fix it?

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  12. Review Tab/Accept drop down/Accept all changes in Document. This will allow you to PRINT without worrying about all the comments and tiertiary effects.

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  13. TJ, that’s also a temporary fix. Every time I save a document after “accept all changes” and then reopen it, it’s back to square one. Extremely annoying and a waste of time to have to reclick on the desired settings every time I open the document.

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      1. I wouldnt want the comments to be deleted. They’re there for a reason. I just need the print setup to be defaulted to ‘no-markup’. I thought it should have some settings in Word Options, but it is limited still. Now I need to REMEMBER to untick the Print With Markup option in Print Settings.

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  18. Click on review tab, in show markup you will have a option balloon in that you have a option “show all revision inline”. This will fix the problem.

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  20. I’m having just the opposite problem. I WANT my comments to print, but all I get is the gray/silver window on the right side of the page with no comments coming through! This is frustrating. I’ve been to numerous sites and followed the steps for selecting “Print Comments” in the drop down menu on the print page and I still get just the gray window. Anyone out there know how to fix this????

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  21. If you’d like to keep the markups within the document, but remove the names, bubbles, and most importantly the wasted space on the right:

    “Review” PANE > “Show Markup” DROPDOWN > “Preferences…” –> Then, go to bottom and deselect (uncheck) the box that says “Use balloons to display changes.”

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  22. I’ve spent two days and about 6 hours trying to get rid of that grey area. Tried your method and wow its gone- so many many thanks I’m writing my second book and it was a real pain – had never come across it before! Terry

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  23. Here is the solution to the completely useless tracking feature (that assumes everyone opens a blank template and starts from scratch, that most definitely NEVER happens except maybe on the first day a business starts and has no access to internet or any other document and HAS to start from scratch):

    In Word 2013 and 2016:

    Review > Changes > Accept > Accept all changes and stop tracking

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  24. Just spent half a day, but found the hidden option to ‘unshow’ hiddenmarkups here:

    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/View-my-options-and-settings-in-the-Trust-Center-d672876e-20d3-4ad3-a178-343d044e05c8

    Second screenshot, uncheck “Make hidden markup visible when opening and saving”

    This will make comments dispappear persisitently, including the forced check “print markups” under printing menu. Liking that this is a “privacy option”, MSFT has long lost trail of its own software configuration…

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    1. it doesnt work on my PC. Instead I tick the Warn before Printing, Saving, Sending…., so that whenever i print, there’s a warning there before I waste my paper. Not a complete solution though.

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  27. None of these fixes work. Nor changing to “Original” or “no Markup” and the print dialog box has been striped of all adjustment options.

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  29. Guys, try going to the review tab, then click on Accept all changes. I did that, saved then reopened and all of the crazy extra space was gone

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