Are resolved comments still in a Word document?
Yes, in our test. Resolving a comment in Word only marks it as done; the comment's text and its author's name stayed inside the file. Accepting every tracked change did not remove the comments either. Microsoft documents its Document Inspector as the tool that finds and removes them.
This guide shows what we saw in a small test file, what Microsoft documents about the "done" flag, and what to check before a Word file leaves your hands.
What "resolved" means in Word
Microsoft's reference for Word describes the Done property of a comment as true when the comment "has been marked closed". That is a flag on the comment. It says nothing about taking the comment out of the document, and the same page notes that newer comment views treat the flag differently from older ones.
Microsoft's Document Inspector page lists comments, revision marks from tracked changes, document versions and ink annotations as things Word can hold and the inspector can find and remove.
What we tested
We ran this on Microsoft Word 2016 on Windows, with invented text. We made a test document with two comments, marked one of them done, and added one tracked insertion. We saved it, then accepted all changes and saved a second copy. We opened both files' internal parts and then ran Check Before Send on each.
| Question | First file (before accepting) | Second file (after accepting all changes) |
|---|---|---|
| Is the resolved comment's text still in the file? | Yes | Yes |
| Is the open comment's text still in the file? | Yes | Yes |
| Does the file record which comment is done? | Yes: one marked done, one not | Yes, unchanged |
| Is the comment author's name in the file? | Yes | Yes |
| Is the tracked insertion still recorded? | Yes | No |
| Is a list of reviewers still in the file? | Yes | Yes |
Three things stood out:
- The resolved comment was not different from the open one, except for a flag. Anyone who opens the file in a way that shows comments, or reads its contents, can see both.
- "Accept all changes" cleaned up the tracked changes and only those. The comments and the list of reviewers stayed.
- Neither comment was visible in the body text of the page; they live in separate parts of the file. That is why a document can look clean and still carry them.
What Check Before Send reported
On both files it listed the comments with the invented author name and the text of each one, the author and last-modified-by names in the file's properties, and the reviewer list. On the first file it also listed the tracked insertion; on the second it did not, which matches what we saw inside the files. It did not treat the resolved comment differently from the open one.
Limits of this test
We tested one version of Word, on Windows, with a small file. We did not test replies inside a comment thread, comments in Word for the web or for Mac, or how newer versions of Word handle resolved threads. Microsoft's own note says the done flag behaves differently between its old and new comment views, so a newer version may differ.
We also did not run Microsoft's Document Inspector on the test file. Microsoft documents it as the tool that finds and removes comments, and it recommends using it on a copy of your original, because removed data cannot always be restored.
Check the file before you send it
Drop the Word file into Check Before Send. It lists each comment with its author and text, and the other things above, so you can see what is in the file instead of what Word shows you. You choose what to remove, it writes a new copy, and it runs a second scan on that copy. "Verified not found" means the second scan found nothing, not that the file is guaranteed clean.
The file is read inside your browser and is not uploaded; the Trust Center explains how to confirm that. If your question is about changes you cannot see, read why you can't see tracked changes in Word, or browse the other guides.