Comment on a document and mention colleagues

Each document has a comments panel, Comments, at the bottom right of the page, if your company has switched comments on for the module. The people who can write in it are the participants of the document’s current step. The owner of the step is a participant automatically. Type your comment and press Enter. Only the step owner can bring in someone new: on the Participants tab, or by mentioning any active user with @. Other participants can mention only people who already take part. Recipients of a topic e-mail also become participants. A mentioned colleague gets a notification under the notification bell in the top bar; an invited colleague or a topic recipient gets an e-mail. They can then open the document and answer.

Before you start

Comments must be switched on for the module. Your user administrator decides this; see Choose how comments notify people.
To write, you must be a participant of the current step of the document’s latest revision. The owner of the step is a participant automatically.
You cannot write while the document is published, while it has been sent to you and you have not yet taken it over with the green button (see Approve or reject a document you received), or on an earlier revision. Anyone who can open the document can read the comments.

Steps

Write a comment

Open the document, in view mode or edit mode.
Click Comments at the bottom right to open the panel. The Current Revision tab opens.
Click in the text box that says “Write a comment…”, type your comment and press Enter, or click the send arrow. Enter sends the comment; it does not start a new line.

Mention a colleague with @

In the text box, type @ and the start of the name.
Choose the person from the list. The list shows up to 20 matches, with name and e-mail address. The owner of the step can choose among all active users in your company; other participants can choose only among the current participants.
Finish the comment and press Enter.

The person you mention becomes a participant of the current step, so they can open the document and answer.

Invite a colleague (owner of the step)

Open the Participants tab in the comments panel.
In the box “Type name to search…”, type the name and choose the person.

The person is added to the list of participants and gets the e-mail “You have been invited to give comments on a document”.

Start a topic and e-mail it

The step owner can choose any active user in the company as a recipient. Other participants can choose only people who already participate in the current step.

Type the text of the topic in the text box.
Click the topic icon (Create a new topic with this text).
A panel asks “Would you like to send an email for this new topic?”. To send one, fill in Subject (filled in with your text), Content and Recipients, all three required, and click Send. Otherwise click No, thanks.

The recipients become participants of the current step and get an e-mail with your subject and content.

What you should see

Your comment in the list, with your full name and the date and time. Others who have the panel open see it at once, and see when someone is typing.
On the Participants tab, everyone taking part in the current step, with a Last comment column.

Who is notified, and when

Who	What they get
Someone you mention with @	A notification under the notification bell in the top bar, “You have been mentioned in a comment. Please follow the link to see it.”, with a link to the comment. Also the e-mail “You have been mentioned in a comment”, if the module sends mention e-mails; they are switched on unless your user administrator has switched them off.
The other participants of the step (not you, not the ones you mentioned)	A notification under the notification bell for every comment: “You have an unread comment in the Chatbox. Please click the link to read it.” Also the e-mail “Document Chat - New Comment”. The module’s inactivity interval is 10 minutes unless Antenor has changed it. Comments on other documents in your company can also postpone this e-mail. A later comment must meet the interval before an e-mail is sent; simply waiting does not send one. When sent, the e-mail includes the document’s comments that have not yet been e-mailed. A topic comment does not trigger this e-mail.
Someone the owner of the step invites	The e-mail “You have been invited to give comments on a document”. From then on they are a participant and are notified like the other participants.
The recipients of a topic	An e-mail with your subject and content. From then on they are participants and are notified like the other participants.

On the dashboard, the table of your documents in progress shows a speech bubble with the number of unread comments; see Read notifications.

Good to know

Edit or delete your own comment. Use the pencil or the red x on your comment. You can only change your own comments, and only while you are a participant. To edit your last comment quickly, press the Up arrow in the text box; press Esc or click Cancel to stop editing. Press Enter to save. An edited comment is marked “(Edited)”; hover over it to see when it was edited. Deleting asks “Please confirm that you wish to delete the comment”.
A topic that was e-mailed cannot be deleted. Trying gives “You cannot delete a topic heading for which you have sent out an e-mail”.
Participants belong to a step. When the document moves to another step, the earlier participants can no longer write. They see “You cannot comment on this document at this time. If you received an invitation this is no longer valid.”
Participants can open the document. While you are a participant of the current step, you can open the document even without the Read right on the module’s row.
Removing a participant. The owner of the step can remove others with the red x on the Participants tab, and anyone can remove themselves. The owner cannot be removed, nor the last participant, and nobody can be removed while the document is waiting for its receiver to take it over. Removing someone takes them off the participant list of every step and revision of the document.
Older revisions. Comments on earlier revisions are on the Older revisions tab, grouped by revision, and can only be read.
Comments switched off later. If comments are switched off for the module, a document that already has comments still shows them, but nobody can write.
Long threads. The panel shows 20 comments at a time; older ones load as you scroll.