Over the years, Google Docs has become one of the most popular ways for companies to collaborate and synchronize their work on documents of all types. For example, the authors of every article on this website usually use Google Docs!
The main part of collaboration is communication. In remote workspaces, whether at work or school, the ability to refine or add comments to a document can greatly improve the way co-authors receive it.
Fortunately, Google Docs supports this feature. Comments can be an important part of some documents, and without them contributors and readers can become confused to the point that they need to seek clarification. This creates a kink in the workflow.
Comments in Google Docs can also be configured as a permission assignment. Much like a task, contributors can mark a comment as solved to confirm that it has been taken care of.
In this article, let’s see how we can add and correct comments in Google Docs.
How to add comments in Google Docs
To get started, open or create a new Google Doc. If you’ve created a new document, you’ll need text to use comments. Then select the text to which you want to add a comment.
When you select the text, you will notice that an icon appears on the right side of the document. The icon looks like a text bubble with a plus sign inside.
Clicking on this icon will open an input field where you can enter your comment.
Press Enter or click the Comment button to submit your comment.
It is so simple! Your document will now highlight the text you comment on. Your comment will appear on the right side of the document, but clicking on the highlighted text area will focus your comment and open the options that we’ll talk about next.
How to resolve comments in Google Docs
Once you’ve created a comment or viewed comments posted by others, you have several options.
You can either click a comment on the right side of the document, or click a highlighted section of text in the document to bring the comment to the front. Once in the foreground, you can reply or resolve the comment. If you have permissions, you can also edit or remove it.
If you find that you made a mistake adding a comment, you can edit or delete it. Edited comments will not appear to let others know that they have been edited. Deleting a comment will delete the entire thread, including all comments below it.
The Allow button also effectively removes the comment, but it has special features. Deleted comments are not added to the Google Docs comment history, but revised comments are added. Corrected comments can also be returned to the document.
In the upper right corner of the page, next to the displayed image of your Google Account, you will see a pop-up message icon with three horizontal lines inside it. Clicking on this icon opens the document’s comment history.
This area will keep track of comments and comment permissions. As you can see in the screenshot above, the resolution time is timestamped, which can be very helpful for contributors.
Allowing comments also gives other contributors the opportunity to reopen the discussion if they have determined that more needs to be done or that the comment was not allowed. Again, simply deleting a comment after you think you’ve decided it is resolved will not provide other users with these options and will not write it down in your document’s comment history.
As you can see, commenting in Google Docs is as easy as it is helpful. Comments allow you to create small areas of discussion in the document, and this can significantly affect the determination of whether your project will be completed today or tomorrow.
However, if you’re not a Google Docs user, don’t worry – Microsoft Word also supports comments, and you can check out our article on how to collaborate on a Microsoft Word document
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