Comments and threads

Polarion LiveDoc Documents support comments in the body text, including the text of Work Items. Comments in Documents work in much the same way as in Microsoft Word and other desktop word processing applications. Comments may be added to Documents either online in the portal, or in Microsoft Word files that have been exported for comment and/or collaboration, and then reimported using the Word Round-trip feature.

Document comments are not the same thing as the default Work Item data field named Comments. Document comments are only visible in the Document Editor, while Work Item comments are only visible in the Table and other views of a Document's Work Items. Document comments are not exported or imported during Excel round-trip.

In order to add comments and replies, or resolve comments, you must be assigned a user role that is granted these permissions.

Please refer to the following figure as necessary when reading subsequent comment sections:

Show Comments sidebar

Selected Comment

Unselected Comment

2-way access

Add new comments

  1. Place the insertion point (caret) in the position in the Document where you want to insert a comment.

  2. On the Document Editor toolbar, click the Add Comment button. The sidebar displays the Comments panel, and a new comment is added ready for editing.

  3. Type the text of the comment and click the Save button on the Document toolbar when finished. A comment icon appears in the Document text at the insertion point.

View existing comments

The Document body displays a comment icon at every point where a comment has been inserted.

Hover your pointer above any comment icon to see the comment text in a tooltip. Click a comment icon to view the comment text in the Comments panel of the Document Sidebar.

You can also access comments by browsing the Comments panel of the sidebar. Clicking on a comment in the sidebar scrolls the Document to the location of the selected comment icon in the text.

Reply to an existing comment

You can use the comment reply feature to create threaded discussions inside a Document. To reply to an existing comment, select the comment in the sidebar Comments panel and click Reply. A new comment appears indented. Type your reply and click Save in the Document Editor toolbar.

( Adjust sidebar settings)

Delete a comment

  1. Select the comment you want to delete in the Document or the sidebar Comments panel.

  2. In the sidebar, click the Delete in the selected comment.

Tip:

If there are any replies to the comment you are deleting, all of them are also deleted.

Resolve Document comments and threads

When stakeholders reach consensus through comments and comment threads, it can be useful to mark the comments and/or comment threads as Resolved. This hides them, after which individual users can opt to view them. It is also possible to reopen resolved comments if a stakeholder decides that further discussion is needed.

See also: Resolve Approval Comments, Resolve Work Item Comments and Threads.

  1. Open the Comments panel of the Document sidebar using the Show Sidebar command on the Document Editor toolbar.

  2. Locate the comment to mark as resolved, hover your pointer over it, and click Resolve. In comment threads, you must mark the top-level comment.

You can view any resolved comments that are hidden:

  1. Open the Comments panel of the Document sidebar.

  2. Click the (Pane Settings) icon in the header and on the menu, choose Show Resolved Comments.

You can reopen resolved comments or threads:

  1. Open the Comments panel of the Document sidebar.

  2. Show resolved comments by clicking the (Pane Settings) icon in the header and on the menu, and choosing Show Resolved Comments.

  3. Locate the resolved comment you want to reopen, hover over it and click Reopen.

Tip:

Replying to any comment in a resolved thread reopens the entire thread.

See also: Signature Comments.

Required Work Item comments

As previously mentioned, only Document comments are accessible in the Document Editor. However, it is possible for administrators to configure projects to make the Comments field of Work Items a required field. When so configured, Work Items changes that affect the workflow cannot be saved without adding a comment to the Comments field. This prevents Document users from saving the Document if they change a field such as Status in Work Item Properties, because the Comments field is not accessible in the Document Editor. Administrators and project leaders should be sure to inform their users and teams if Work Item comments are required to transition the workflow.

If you are prompted to add a Work Item comment after changing Status in one or more of the Document's Work Items, it means you cannot change Status in the Document Editor. You will instead need to use the Table view of the Document, which is accessible from the Document Editor toolbar.

In this situation, if you have unsaved content changes, go back to all Work Items in which you have changed Status, and set the value back to what it was before you changed it. This should enable you to save the content changes. If you have no pending content changes, you just can switch to the Table view immediately and opt to cancel changes when prompted.

In the Table view, browse or run a query to find the Work Items for which you want to change Status. For each item, change the Status field as desired and add a new comment to the Comments.

Comments in Excel Round-trip

If Work Items containing Document comments are exported for Excel round-trip, and the Work Item Description field is allowed by the exporting user to be editable in the exported Excel workbook, a placeholder {comment:id} is inserted into description text in the exported Excel workbook. This preserves the comment marker for the round-trip process and should not be removed from the exported Excel document.