Comments and suggestions let you discuss a manuscript exactly where the discussion belongs: in the text. Anyone with the commenter role or above can take part; see Share a document & set permissions.
Add a comment
Select some text
Highlight the passage you want to discuss.
Choose Add comment
Use the Add comment button in the floating toolbar that appears over your selection, or press Ctrl+Shift+M (Cmd+Shift+M on Mac).
Write and post
Type your comment and post it. The passage is highlighted, and colleagues can reply to build a thread. People in the thread are notified of new replies.
When a thread is settled, resolve it from the thread itself or from the comments panel. Resolved threads stay available; switch on Show resolved in the panel to revisit them.
The comments panel
The editor’s Comments panel lists every thread in the document. From there you can search comments, open a thread at its place in the text, reply, and resolve or re-open discussions, which is useful in long manuscripts where highlights are spread across many pages.
Suggesting mode
The editing-mode switcher in the editor header offers three modes:
- Editing: direct changes update the manuscript.
- Suggesting: changes are tracked as suggestions instead of applied immediately.
- Viewing: read without changing the document.
Suggestions can be accepted or rejected one by one where they appear, or in bulk from the review panel with Accept all or Reject all. This is the right mode when you are polishing someone else’s draft and want them to keep the final say.
Mentions
In the document text, insert a mention from the slash menu (or with @) to reference a colleague at a specific point, for example to mark who owns a section. When a comment mentions a colleague, they receive a notification pointing them to the discussion.