When working with Microsoft Word or Excel, annotations such as comments, tracked changes, and ink markups are useful for collaboration. However, printing these annotations is often unnecessary and can clutter your documents. Fortunately, both Word and Excel provide easy ways to disable annotations when printing.

In Microsoft Word:

1. Open your Word document.

2. Go to File → Print.

3. Under Settings, locate Print All Pages.

4. Make sure Print Markup is unchecked.

5. Proceed to print your document.

With Print Markup disabled, comments, tracked changes, and any ink annotations will not appear on the printed copy, even though they remain visible on your screen.

In Microsoft Excel:

1. Open your Excel workbook.

2. Go to File → Print.

3. Under Settings, find Print Comments and Notes.

4. Select None to ignore all annotations.

5. Print your workbook.

By setting comments and notes to None, Excel ensures that your printout remains clean, showing only the worksheet data.

Disabling annotations is helpful for final submissions, client reports, or any official documentation where extra markups are not needed. Remember, this setting only affects printing; your on-screen annotations remain intact for future editing.