Comments in a Word document capture the discussion, feedback, and decisions that shaped the final text. When that document is exported to PDF, those comments should travel with it so that readers can see not just what was written but what was debated, questioned, and resolved. The standard Word to PDF export does include comments by default in most recent versions of Microsoft Word, but the exact behavior depends on the export settings, the version of Word, and whether the comments were resolved or still active. Knowing which settings to check before exporting ensures the comments appear in the PDF exactly as intended.
How Word Handles Comments During PDF Export
Microsoft Word 365 and Word 2021 include a dedicated setting for comment visibility in PDF exports. When you go to File, Export, and choose Create PDF, the Options dialog contains a checkbox labeled Document showing markup under the Include non-printing information section. Checking this box tells Word to include comments, tracked changes, and any other markup in the PDF output. The comments appear in the PDF margin, positioned similarly to how they appear in the Word document, with the comment text and the author name visible.
Resolved comments behave differently from active comments during PDF export. A resolved comment in Word is a comment thread that has been marked as addressed but not deleted. By default, Word does not include resolved comments in the PDF because they are considered closed and no longer relevant to the document content. If you need resolved comments to appear in the PDF, you must reopen them in Word before exporting. Click the comment, choose Reopen, and the thread returns to active status. After reopening all the comments you want to include, run the PDF export with the Document showing markup option enabled.
Exporting With Comments on Mac vs Windows
Word for Mac handles comment export slightly differently than Word for Windows. On Mac, the PDF export dialog offers a similar Show markup checkbox, but the rendering of comments in the resulting PDF sometimes places them on a separate page at the end of the document rather than in the margin beside the relevant text. This happens because the Mac PDF rendering pipeline uses the Apple Quartz PDF engine, which interprets the comment positioning differently than the Windows GDI-based PDF renderer.
To avoid the separate-page comment rendering on Mac, use the Save As command instead of Export. Choose File, Save As, and select PDF from the format dropdown. In the save dialog, click the Options button and confirm that Document showing markup is checked. The Save As path often produces more faithful comment positioning on Mac because it uses a different rendering code path than the Export command. If the comments still render on a separate page after trying both Export and Save As, open the resulting PDF in a PDF Annotation tool and use the comment or annotation features to reposition them manually beside the relevant text blocks.
Preserving Comment Formatting and Author Information
Comments in Word carry metadata that should appear in the PDF: the author name, the date and time the comment was created, and any replies in a comment thread. This metadata is preserved during PDF export when the Document properties and Document structure tags options are also enabled in the export dialog. The author name displayed in the PDF comes from the User Name setting in Word, not from the document author metadata. If the comments in the document show generic names like Author or Windows User, the PDF will display those same names.
To standardize author names before export, change the user name in Word. On Windows, go to File, Options, and under the General section, update the User Name field. On Mac, go to Word, Preferences, and under Personal Settings, update the User Name. This change affects comments created going forward. Existing comments retain the author name that was active when they were created. To update author names on existing comments, you need to edit each comment individually or use a macro that cycles through all comments and updates the author property.
Including Comments in a PDF Without the Markup Clutter
A PDF with every comment and tracked change visible can become visually overwhelming, especially for a document that went through multiple review cycles. When the audience needs to see the comments but does not need the full tracked changes clutter, accept all tracked changes before exporting and leave only the comments visible. In Word, click the Review tab, open the Accept dropdown, and choose Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking. The document text is now clean and final. Then export to PDF with Document showing markup enabled, and only the comments, not the tracked changes, appear in the output.
This selective approach produces a cleaner PDF Export that focuses the reader attention on the commentary without the visual noise of strikethrough text, insertion underlines, and formatting change indicators. It is particularly appropriate for final deliverables where the decision-making discussion remains relevant but the editorial mechanics of how the text evolved do not.
Using a PDF Tool When Word Export Options Are Insufficient
When Word built-in comment export does not produce the desired result, a dedicated PDF tool can add comment functionality after the fact. Export the Word document to PDF without comments to create a clean base file. Then use a PDF editor that supports comment and annotation tools to add the discussion points directly into the PDF. This approach gives you precise control over comment placement, formatting, and visibility, at the cost of requiring manual transcription of the comments from Word to the PDF.
For documents where the comments are extensive, this manual approach quickly becomes impractical. Tools like WukongPDF provide the PDF Export and annotation functionality in a single platform, allowing you to convert the Word document to PDF and then add, edit, and position annotations directly within the browser. The two-step workflow of first exporting a clean PDF and then selectively adding annotations produces a more polished result than hoping the Word export settings produce exactly the right comment rendering.
Verifying Comments in the PDF Before Distribution
After exporting the Word document to PDF with comments enabled, open the PDF in at least two different viewers. Adobe Acrobat Reader displays comments in a dedicated Comments pane on the right side of the window. Browser-based PDF viewers may display comments differently, sometimes as small speech bubble icons that must be clicked to reveal the text. Mobile PDF apps have their own comment display conventions. Verify that the comments are visible, readable, and correctly associated with the relevant text in each viewing environment your recipients are likely to use.
Scroll through every page and confirm that all expected comments are present. A common export issue is that comments on the last page of a section or on content inside text boxes and floating objects do not render in the PDF. Spot-check these locations specifically. If comments are missing, return to Word and verify that the comments are active, not resolved, and that the Document showing markup option was enabled for the export.
Handling Comments in Collaborative Documents With Tracked Changes
Documents that have been through multiple rounds of review often contain both comments and tracked changes simultaneously. The visual density of red strikethrough text, blue insertion underlines, and comment balloons in the margin can overwhelm a reader trying to understand the current state of the document. Before exporting to PDF with comments visible, consider accepting all formatting-only tracked changes while leaving substantive content changes and comments active.
Word filter options in the Review tab let you show or hide specific types of markup. Click Show Markup and uncheck Formatting to hide font, spacing, and style change indicators. Uncheck Insertions and Deletions to focus only on comments. These filters apply to the PDF export when Document showing markup is enabled, so you can control the visual density of the output without manually accepting and rejecting individual changes.
When exporting a document that contains comments from multiple reviewers, the comment color coding that distinguishes reviewers in Word may not carry over to the PDF. Check the PDF output to confirm that each comment is clearly attributable to its author, either through the author name displayed in the comment or through a consistent color scheme. If the color coding is lost, consider adding reviewer initials to the beginning of each comment before export.
A final tip for documents with extensive comment threads: export the PDF in two versions. One version includes all comments for the internal review team. The other version is a clean export without comments for external distribution. This dual-export approach keeps the discussion history accessible to those who need it while presenting a clean, professional document to external readers.
When the document is part of a larger report package that includes multiple PDFs, merge the commented and clean versions using a PDF merge tool after export rather than trying to manage comment visibility during the merge process itself.