After hearing feedback from users, Microsoft has announced a new feature in Word for the web. To make collaboration in Word documents more effective, Microsoft has announced "react to comments", enabling users to convey their reaction to a comment.
Do not confuse this with what you have on other social media platforms like WhatsApp. What Microsoft has done is that it has added a new ‘Like’ button on the top right corner of the commenter’s feedback. Instead of typing “+1” to convey your agreement, you can now click the new button to convey your agreement. To remove your reaction, you can click on the button once again.
There is more to it. If a comment contains multiple likes, hovering over the mouse over the ‘Like’ button will display the list of usernames that have liked the comment. The list will be updated in real-time while you collaborate your Word document on the web.
Microsoft is currently rolling out the new ‘Like’ button to all users in Word for the web. However, the company has outlined some known issues. For one, collaborators on other platforms such as Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android cannot see the comment reactions. Also, comment reactions may not be available when editing older documents.
Microsoft has promised that it will add notifications and support for reactions to more platforms “soon”. In fact, the Word product team is already working towards expanding it to more platforms. However, there is not enough clarity on concrete timelines.
A few days ago, Microsoft added "Simple Markup view" in Word for the web, helping users stay focused on the document itself. This was also one of the most requested features, like the new "Like" button.
If you have anything exciting in your mind and want Microsoft to bring to Word in a future update, you can submit your comments and feedback by selecting Help > Feedback in the application.