Annoying Pop-up Bubbles in Track Changes mode in Pages

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Level 1

8 points

Annoying Pop-up Bubbles in Track Changes mode in Pages

When I am editing a document in "track changes" mode in Pages, anytime I move my cursor near a previous edit a bubble pops up showing me the edit, who made it, and when. Can anyone please tell me -- for the love of humanity -- how to remove this INSUFFERABLE "feature." I am already LOOKING at the screen with the edits -- why do I need constant text bubbles popping up telling me WHO made them and WHEN? I don't care!! The edits were either done by ME (one color) or my partner (other color). The rest is just visual trash that pops up, gets in the way, and covers the text on the page that I'm actually trying to see. I'm genuinely curious to know if the team who implemented this "feature" ever actual edits documents? Just because something can pop up on screen doesn't mean it should -- and there should be an obvious way to turn it off. Sorry for the venting but this has been frustrating me for a year. Does this bug anyone else? 😂

Posted on Aug 13, 2026 8:55 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

WheelieNick

Level 9

52,149 points

Aug 14, 2026 2:24 AM in response to chris6041

You cannot directly disable the hover pop-up tooltips in Apple Pages without turning off markup visibility entirely, because Apple provides no isolated switch or preference to kill just the mouse-over behavior

Try this

Switch to "Final" view: Click the Gear icon (Review/Tracking controls) in the review toolbar or sidebar and switch the display mode to Final. This applies all edits temporarily so you can read a clean page without colored clutter or hovering boxes.

Use the Comments & Changes pane workaround: Go to View in the top menu bar and select Show Comments & Changes Pane. Click the options/view gear inside that pane and choose Hide Changes. You generally have to leave this sidebar open (you can drag it or resize it to be very narrow or shift it toward the edge of your screen) to suppress the active interactive markup behavior on the main text canvas.

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Answer 2

chris6041 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 14, 2026 9:55 AM in response to WheelieNick

Thank you for taking the time to respond to this. The “final” view is helpful — never noticed the feature before. Though I wish I was still able to see the changes in color. The pane view, sadly, is only marginally better than the bubbles. It’s not blocking text in the document with a bubble, but it’s unwanted and distracting visual clutter. I love Apple but this is an example of them being so impressed with their own “feature” that they fail to understand the practical aspects of why someone may not want it imposed on them. Very frustrating.

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