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How to change the author name for comment in Word

This article is talking about changing the default author name for comments, or changing the existing author name in a document to a new one. Please try the below two methods.

Change the comments' author name for future use

Change the existing comments' author name of a document


Change the comments' author name for future use

If you want to change the comment’s author name for future use, please change the User Name in Word Options window.

1. In an opened Word document, click File > Options. In the Word Options window, make sure you are locating in the General tab, change the name in the User name box as below screenshot shown, and finally click the OK button.

Now you have changed the default user name for comments in Word document.


Change the existing comments' author name of a document

If you have received a document with lots of comments, and you want to change all comments' author names to a certain one, the following VBA code will do you a favor.

1. Select the range contains comments or select the whole document you will change the author names by pressing the Ctrl + A keys, press the Alt + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. In the opening Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, click Insert > Module. Then copy below VBA code into the Module window.

VBA code: Change the existing comments' author name of document

Sub ChangeCommentAuthor()
'Updated by EntendOffice 20181112
    Dim I As Long
    Dim xNewName As String
    Dim xShortName As String
    If Selection.Comments.Count = 0 Then
        MsgBox "No comments in your selection!", vbInformation, "KuTools for Word"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    xNewName = InputBox("New author name?", "KuTools for Word")
    xShortName = InputBox("New author initials?", "KuTools for Word")
    If xNewName = "" Or xShortName = "" Then
        MsgBox "The author name/initials can’t be empty.", vbInformation, "Kutools for Word"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    With Selection
        For I = 1 To .Comments.Count
            .Comments(I).Author = xNewName
            .Comments(I).Initial = xShortName
        Next I
    End With
End Sub

3. Press the F5 key to run the code. In the opening Comments Author Name dialog box, enter the new author name into the textbox and click the OK button.

4. In the next opening Comments initials dialog box, enter the initials as you need and click the OK button.

Then all comments’ author names in selected range are changed to the specified one immediately as below screenshot shown.


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Comments (29)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Yardımı oldu, teşekkürler.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
The VBA script worked perfectly to change the name of the author to my company name. Thank you!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Here is a modified Macro that will allow you to first specify the Name your want to replace in case there are other comments that you don't want to modify.

Sub ChangeCommentAuthor()
'Updated by EntendOffice 20181112
Dim I As Long
Dim xOldName As String
Dim xNewName As String
Dim xShortName As String
If Selection.Comments.Count = 0 Then
MsgBox "No comments in your selection!", vbInformation, "KuTools for Word"
Exit Sub
End If
xOldName = InputBox("Old author name?", "KuTools for Word")
xNewName = InputBox("New author name?", "KuTools for Word")
xShortName = InputBox("New author initials?", "KuTools for Word")
If xOldName = "" Or xNewName = "" Or xShortName = "" Then
MsgBox "The author name/initials can’t be empty.", vbInformation, "Kutools for Word"
Exit Sub
End If
With Selection
For I = 1 To .Comments.Count
If .Comments(I).Author = xOldName Then
.Comments(I).Author = xNewName
.Comments(I).Initial = xShortName
End If
Next I
End With
End Sub
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you, Olivier, you are a good person!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
И салат неплох
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
La même en anglais

Sub ChangeCommentAuthor()
'Updated 20220603
Dim Index As Long
Dim xOldName As String
Dim xNewName As String
Dim xShortName As String
If Selection.Comments.Count = 0 Then
MsgBox "No comments in your selection!", vbInformation, "KuTools for Word"
Exit Sub
End If
xOldName = InputBox("Old author name?", "KuTools for Word")
xNewName = InputBox("New author name?", "KuTools for Word")
xShortName = InputBox("New author initials?", "KuTools for Word")
If xNewName = "" Or xShortName = "" Then
MsgBox "The author name/initials can't be empty.", vbInformation, "Kutools for Word"
Exit Sub
End If
With Selection
For Index = 1 To .Comments.Count
If (.Comments(Index).Author = xOldName) Then
.Comments(Index).Author = xNewName
.Comments(Index).Initial = xShortName
End If
Next Index
End With
End Sub
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Many thanks for this. Works Perfect. A warning though; all comments will be changed, regardless of multiple authors. Something that didn't bother me.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thanks for the tutorial. it really helped me
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This appeared to work but I could not save the file without it reverting to the original Author.

My workaround was to change the .docx extension on the filename to .zip. Then I opened the zip file. Browsed to the "word" folder and then copied the "comments.xml" file. Open the "comments.xml" file in a text editor. Do a search and replace of the Author name then saved the file. Copy and replace the old "comments.xml" with the new one in the .zip file. Now change the file extension back to .docx and the Author name is now replaced in the saved Word file.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
You probably had a script enabled that reverted the comments author upon saving.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you! It changed perfectly the comments, BUT not formatting, like highlighting. Is there what can be modified in the VBA?VBAproblem@mt2015.com
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I am very grateful for this information. The VBA codes works Perfectly on a document I don't want the writer to know who the reviewer is yet. Thanks.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thanks a lot, the VBN code worked like magic!!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I changed my user name as instructed, but my actual name is still showing up in the comments. I am trying to make my comments anonymous while retaining the other reviewer's comments with their name on them.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
That VBA code worked like a charm - thanks!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Worked perfectly, thanks!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
traduction en français inutilisable. Dommage !
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
French translation makes the work impossible, due to keyboard differences
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Wow ! Awesome ! many thanks ! 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Bonjour
Cette macro fonctionne bien, mais pour anonymiser l'auteur des corrections dans un texte, il faudrait, en plus de l'auteur des commentaires, pouvoir changer le nom au niveau de marques de révision, et tel n'est pas le cas.
Auriez-vous une solution?
Merci d'avance.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
FOR THOSE WHO WANNA CHANGE AUTHORS ONLY OF CERTAIN COMMENTSOpen your doc with an archiver (e.g. ZIP), go to word folder, find comments.xml file, extract, open with notepad, edit accordingly (ctrl+H to find and change current author and initials to the ones you desire), save, get the file back to word folder in the zip, et voila
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Cette astuce ne fonctionne pas avec toutes les versions d'office
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Great, worked very well ... thanks
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Excellent information in this post and also in the comments. Thank you everyone.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Microsoft ist schon ein Schrott. Je neuer die Versionen sind, umso weniger findet man die Lösung. Wo ändere ich schlichtweg den Autor grundsätzlich. Bei mir wird nichts geändert und ich suche seit über 2 Stunden... einfach nur Schrott das UX von Microschrott
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