Hi ?B?TGF6eWpvdXJuYWxpc3Q=?=,

For a marking system I am piloting markers comment on essays using the Word
Comment balloons. However I have discovered that while it is fairly
straightforward to prevent marker identity from being discovered (by setting
the User identity to something anonymous) the date/time information for each
comment is available for the students, which is not something I really want
them to get hold of (any excuse to contest a mark - i.e. what time the
marking was done, how long it appeared to take). Is there a way to strip this
information away, or lock it out of the hands of those who view it - while
still keeping the comments themselves visible?

No, there isn't; at least, not in the user-interface or while the document is in
Word document format. The date is a "read-only" attribute, which means even VBA
can't write to it.

If the document were saved as HTML or XML - files in plain text format - the
date information could certainly be removed (or set to a meaningless value). And
removing it could be automated using script or VB(A). But that's about all that
would be possible.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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