How to Include Comments When Printing Google Docs

Google Docs offer a convenient way for creating and collaborating on online documents. You can make direct edits or include comments on Google Docs and your coworkers can see them in real-time.

In fact, one of the advantages of Google Docs is that you can have a whole conversation thread in the comments. Sometimes you might need to print the document together with the comments, for example to archive the revision process of a document.

However, the problem is that when you print Google Docs, the comments disappear.

Not to worry, not everything is lost. Luckily, there are workarounds that can help print a Google Docs document with the comments.

How to print Google Docs with the comments

There are several methods by which you can include the comments in a printed version of a document.

Take a screenshot of the Google Doc

The simplest way to print a Google Docs document with the comments is to capture a screenshot of it and print it. Although this is an easy fix, it’s not so flexible and has limitations.

For example, you would have to take a screenshot of each page and print it separately. If the document is short, this method might be useful. However, if it’s a dozen or more pages in question, explore some of the other methods below.

Save the Google Doc as a Web Page

To save Google Docs as a web page:

1. Open Google Docs document.
2. Click on the ‘File’ in the top-left corner of the Toolbar.
3. From the menu, click on ‘Download’, which will open the download options menu.
4. Select the 6th option - Web Page (.html, zipped).

5. Select a file where you want Google Docs to save the zipped file.
6. Next, unzip the saved file and extract the HTML document. Open the document in a Chrome browser.
7. You’ll see the comments notated on each line where they existed in the Google Doc and all comments with reference numbers at the bottom of the document.
8. Click on the three-dot menu at the upper right corner of the Chrome window to print the document.

Export the Google Doc in an OpenDocument format

This workaround is helpful if you don’t have a licensed copy of Microsoft Word on your computer.

1. Open the Google Doc and click on ‘File’ in the Toolbar.
2. Click on ‘Download’ and select the second option OpenDocument Format (.odt).

3. Open the ODT saved file in any of the compatible programs like Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice Writer or OpenOffice Writer.
4. To see the comments, turn them on by clicking on ‘View’ on the Toolbar and selecting ‘Comment’.
5. Print the document by selecting File > Print.
6. If you don’t see the comments in the print view, click on the Comments dropdown and select either ‘Place at end of document’ or ‘Place at end of page’.

Download the Google Docs in Microsoft Word

If you have a licensed Microsoft Word, you can download the Google Doc in .docx format.

1. Open the Google Doc.
2. From the Toolbar, click on the File menu, and then the Download. Next select Microsoft Word (.docx).

3. Open the saved file in Microsoft Word.
4. If you don’t see the comments, click on ‘Review’ from the Toolbar menu, and turn on ‘Show Comments’.
5. Click on ‘File’ in the Toolbar and select ‘Print’.

Use the Google Chrome extension to print Google Docs with comments

Another convenient way to print a Google Doc with the comments is to use the Google Document with Comments Printer Chrome extension if you are using Google Chrome.

Once you install the Google Chrome extension:

1. Click on the extensions icon in Google Chrome, where you’ll see the Print Google Doc with Comments extension as a print icon.
2. Click on the ‘print icon’.
3. A pop-up window will appear with the option to choose whether you want to include comments in the printout, and how you want those comments to be formatted.

4. You can print only the comments, or the entire document with the comments included.
5. In the print preview, you’ll also see the comments displayed to the right of the pages.

These are some helpful methods with which you can print your Google Docs including the comments.

If you like using Google Docs, but don’t like typing, Google Docs has an amazing feature called voice typing, but sometimes it can happen that it stops working. Check out how to fix when this happens.

Also, check out how to use Google Docs' real-time chat feature that allows multiple users working on the same document to easily communicate within the document.