Linda’s story about comments
Create & save to the cloud
Linda is a part of the Morale Committee at work and has been tasked with leading the planning of the company’s annual team-building trip this year. She’s got plenty of ideas, but first she has to get them organized.
Linda opens the Excel app on her PC and creates a spreadsheet with the dates of the trip. Then she adds in her ideas for activities and dining options for each day. After getting her initial thoughts down, she saves the file to her OneDrive.
Share privately with OneDrive
It’s time to get some feedback from the rest of the Morale Committee. Linda easily shares her Excel spreadsheet right from the app to Todd and Inga.
In her sharing message, she adds, “Here are my suggestions for things to do and eat during the company trip. Let me know if there are any issues with these from your individual teams.”
Comment and work together
Later that day Inga sees that Linda has shared her ideas with her, but she has the day off. Even though she doesn’t have a work laptop at home, she can still access and edit the document using Excel for the web. She adds a comment with an @mention for Linda, “I’m very afraid of water. How about some hiking instead of a cruise?”
Todd opens the Excel spreadsheet and sees that Inga has already made a comment. He notices that for dinner on the first day Linda has suggested a Brazilian steakhouse. However, he knows that Alice on his team is a vegetarian. He @mentions Linda in a comment to let her know that a steakhouse isn’t a good option. He also replies to Inga’s comment about hiking, “I love hiking and would be happy either way!”
Make edits and respond to comments
Linda is in the waiting room at the dentist. She gets notifications about the @mentions on her mobile phone. Using the Excel mobile app, she opens the spreadsheet and reads the comments that Inga and Todd have left for her. She responds to the comment thread Inga started, “Hiking sounds good to me.” She changes the activity in the spreadsheet from a cruise to hiking.
Linda sees that Todd is still in the file. She responds to his comment, “Actually this particular steakhouse is well known for it’s vegetarian and vegan options as well! If Alice is not okay with it still, we can look into other options.”
She immediately sees that Todd has responded to her comment in real time, “Steakhouse is good to go then!”
Rob Woodgate is a writer and IT consultant with nearly 20 years of experience across the private and public sectors. He’s also worked as a trainer, technical support person, delivery manager, system administrator, and in other roles that involve getting people and technology to work together. Read more.
When you’re adding comments to a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation, Office 365 lets you mention another user using the “@” sign (like most chat apps). Here’s what Office 365 mentions are for and how to use them effectively.
Mentions only make sense when you’re working with other people, so although you can use them with a personal Office 365 (O365) subscription, you’ll need to add other people to that subscription for them to have much use. This means that mentions tend to be more useful within an organization where everyone has an O365 license.
You’re never going to use Word, Excel, or PowerPoint as chat apps, but that doesn’t mean you want to leave the file you’re reviewing to send the author a message. Previously, you could add comments to an Office file for anyone else with access to that file to read, but that relies on them opening the file and reading the comments. With mentions, you can proactively send someone a message.
That message might be a question (“Sandra, can you confirm these figures are correct?”), an edit (“John, this section is too wordy, can you trim it down please.”), or simply a comment (“Jean, love this slide, that’s really effective”). Whatever it is, a mention will automatically send that person an email alert with a link to the comment. No more waiting for someone to open the file “just in case” you’ve added a comment!
We’re going to demonstrate this with Word, but the process is exactly the same in Excel and PowerPoint.
Select the text you want to comment on and then click Insert > New Comment (or right-click the highlighted text and select “New Comment” from the context menu).
In the comment box that appears, type “@” and the name of the person you want to mention. Write out the rest of your message and then click the “Post” button.
And that’s it, you’ve mentioned someone.
The person you mentioned will receive an email alert that shows your comment, the text you commented on, and a button to take them straight to your comment in the document.
Mentions in general work in Microsoft’s mobile apps, web apps, and desktop clients for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
The email alert has additional functionality that will also show any comment thread, the surrounding document context, and give you the ability to reply to the comment from the email.
This additional functionality is available in the mobile apps and web apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and the Excel client (version 1911 or later for Windows, version 16.31 or later for Mac). Email alerts from the Word and PowerPoint client apps will get this additional functionality sometime in 2020.
You have a lot going on during the business day and beyond, so any short-cut that adds productivity and efficiency to your day is a nice welcome. Microsoft recently updated its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs with a nifty even if simple tool: the @mention.
You have likely been there where you want to make a comment, you do make a comment, and that comment gets lost among all the other comments. Worse yet: the document you are reviewing will be reviewed by not just one but many other people. Without personalization in these comments, everyone will read each comment without knowing for whom it was intended. The @mention is a feature that solves these types of problems — problems that seem trivial at first but which can really add up. Here’s how to use the @mention feature and how to do so with success.
How to Use @mention in Microsoft Office?
The @mention feature is only available using Office 365. It allows you to tag someone who has permission to open the document for feedback by emailing that person with a direct link to the comment. It is really quite simple to use:
- Make sure you are signed into Outlook and then sign into Office 365.
- Open the document to be reviewed in either your SharePoint library or OneDrive for Business.
- Go to Review > New Comment.
- Type @-person’s-name within the comment.
The feature, for the moment, however, is only available online and to those who are Office Insiders using Windows or macOS. It is not yet available in iOS or Android.
How to Use @mention strategically?
Using the @mention strategically is what will really make this feature work for you. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Bring a comment to someone’s attention immediately by using @mention. Here, we specifically mean targeting a colleague who may have specific interest or knowledge of the matter or who may be loaded with work and an @mention may be the thing to get his or her attention.
- For one comment, you can @mention more than one person, so there’s no need to draft more than one comment for the same issue.
- You can @mention someone without permission to access the document — in this case, Microsoft will ask you to provide permission.
- Make sure before starting the review that you have given permission to everyone who may also need access to the document so you do not need to worry about this additional step later.
Also, if you are wondering whether or not a person subject to multiple comments will now receive multiple emails, Microsoft has already thought about it, too. Microsoft will batch the links into a single email if there is more than one @mention for the same person.
Now that you know how to use @mentions in your Microsoft programs, and how to use it strategically, it is time to get back to get back to being productive. Sign in and try it out and see how soon other reviewers start responding.
Published on December 17th, 2018 by Eric Gurley
My name is Apurv, and I’m a Program Manager in Microsoft Office.
We recently added the capability to @mention your collaborators in comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. @mentions makes it easier for you to notify your peers, pull them into a document, and work together wherever you need their attention.
To get started, simply make a comment and type @ in a file saved on SharePoint or OneDrive for Business. You’ll see a drop-down list of contacts that updates as you type more characters. Pick a name and finish writing your comment. To be more casual, feel free to delete everything except the person’s first name in the @mention. To include more people, type @ again and mention someone else.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will automatically send an email notification to whoever you tag with a link to the specific comment. This link will open in the Online version of the apps or directly in the iOS/Android app. If someone gets mentioned more than once, we’ll batch the emails together.
Requirements & Known Limitations
· You must be using Office 365.
· The file must be saved in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business.
· Tenants with conditional access will not be able to create @mentions. Please contact your IT Administrator for more information.
· @mentions does not work with guest or external accounts (you cannot @mention such accounts nor can such accounts @mention in files outside of their tenant). You can still share with them directly.
Available to all Insiders
· iOS build 2.20 (18120200) or later
· Available to all O365 users in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Online
We’re eager to hear your feedback! You can leave comments on this post or submit feedback in Word/Excel/PowerPoint:
· On iOS go to Settings > Send Feedback
If you’d like to get someone’s attention in an email message or a meeting invite, you can type the @ symbol, followed by their name, in the body of the email message or a meeting invite. If you do this, not only will their name be highlighted in the message body or invite details, but Outlook will automatically add them to the To line of the email or meeting invite, and they’ll see the @ symbol next to the message in their Inbox.
Use @ in the body of a message or meeting invite
In the body of the email message or calendar invite, enter the @ symbol and the first few letters of the contact’s first or last name.
When Outlook offers you one or more suggestions, choose the contact you want to mention. By default, the contact’s full name is included.
You can delete a portion of the mention, for example, everything other than the person’s first name. The mentioned contact is also added to the To line of the email or the meeting invite.
Search for messages that mention you
If you receive a lot of email, you might want to filter the messages in a folder to see only those messages that mention you.
If you are not aware, Microsoft Office apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel have been updated with a very useful feature, @mention. The feature has been primarily designed to solve problems that, at first, appear trivial but gradually add up later. So, here’s a short tutorial explaining to you how to use the @mention feature and how to do so with ease.
Using @mention to tag someone in Office 365 apps
On any working day, you have a lot going so, any creative innovation or an idea that adds productivity and efficiency could be very beneficial. For instance, you have come across an Office 365 Word document where you would like to add your valuable inputs. To make it count, you add a comment however, without personalization in these comments, everyone will read each comment without knowing for whom it was intended. Thus, the comment loses its relevance. The @mention is a feature helps to avoid such situations by doing two things-
- Sending a mail with a link to the relevant recipient
- Enabling the tagged person to join the conversation.
If you’d like to get someone’s attention to a Word document online and make corrections to it, you can use @mention in comments of Word for Office 365 to tag someone for feedback.
1] Sending a mail with a link to the relevant recipient
To send the mail, you’ll first need to go to Office.com and sign-in.
Then, click on Word/Excel/PowerPoint for Office 365 and select the file.
[Images source – Office.com]
Now, to add your comment, choose the ‘Review’ tab > ‘New comment‘ from the ribbon menu or alternatively, from the context menu, select ‘New Comment’.
When you comment on a document, presentation, or spreadsheet and use the @-sign with someone’s name, the person you mention will receive an email with a link to your comment.
Type @ and the first few letters of the person’s first or last name, and then pick the name you want (If they don’t already have permission to open the document, you’ll be asked to provide that first).
2] Enabling the tagged person to join the conversation
Upon receiving the mail, when the recipient clicks on the link, it will bring him into the document and into the conversation automatically.
Please note – If you choose to use @mentions more than once, Office will batch the links into a single email.
Date: February 3, 2020 Tags: Features
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A post-graduate in Biotechnology, Hemant switched gears to writing about Microsoft technologies and has been a contributor to TheWindowsClub since then. When he is not working, you can usually find him out traveling to different places or indulging himself in binge-watching.
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I enclose the instructions on how to use @mention in comments to tag someone for feedback:
Let me know if it works for you.
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Thank you Vladimir. I have referred to these instructions before I posted my question because it didn’t work. Because the problem is that when I type “@” no names appear to choose from. Speaking about this, from where these names/contacts are populated? I am assuming these contacts are users in the organisation? Right?
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You are welcome.
It is filled with the names of the people who have access to that document.
For when they are going to edit, see the mention in the comment.
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Is the feature “@mention” working? Do you have any updates?
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No, it is not working. I have tried on Word Online and on the desktop Mac version (document on Sharepoint) but it didn’t work. I have upgraded the Word version to 16.19 version (Insiders) and it did not work yet. I have tried powerpoint and Excel as well – but failed.
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Thanks for your updates.
To narrow down the issue, could you please provide the following information for further analysis?
1. Check if all files meet the issue.
2. As the file is stored on SharePoint or OneDrive, please provide the account information to check from background.
To protect your privacy, I’ve sent you a private message to collect the information . You can access it via private message 。
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As you work through your plan, you might have questions for the person working on a task. You can add a comment to the task to start a discussion.
Add a comment to a task
To add a comment, select a task to bring up its details, and then use the Comments box to discuss things with your team. Click Send when you’re ready to post the comment.
Important: Once you post a comment, you can’t delete or edit it.
After a comment is added, the task shows a comment symbol to give the team a heads-up that there’s something new to read.
Comments are shown in the task with the most recent comment at the top.
Who gets notified about my comment?
Your comment is sent to:
Your plan’s Microsoft 365 Group. You can see it along with all the conversations going on for all tasks in your plan. In Outlook, select the three dots next to your plan’s name, and then choose Conversation. From there, you can see comments for all of the plan’s tasks in Outlook on the web. You can also use the Outlook Groups app to view conversations about your plan. Learn more about conversations in Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook.
Anyone who has already commented on the task. Email notifications for comments don’t automatically get sent to the task owner, and @-mentions are not currently supported. For more details, see Manage Planner notifications.
If you want to modify who receives task comment email notifications for a specific task, see Reset who receives email notifications on comments for a specific task.
Why can’t I see or add task comments?
There are a few reasons you might not be able to see or add task comments:
If you paste into the Comment field from an email message including “From:” and “Sent:” fields, your comment will look like it has been saved, but everything after and including those fields will not appear the next time the task is opened. This is because Exchange handles these fields as a forward or reply, and treats them differently than normal text. To work around this issue:
For short emails, remove the “From:” and “Sent:” fields from your comment before choosing Send.
For long emails with many “From:” and “Sent:” fields, consider adding the email to the task as an attachment and referring to it from the comments.
If your organization is not using Exchange Online for your account, you may not be able to comment on tasks in Planner.
You can’t add comments to Planner tasks in plans that are created by Connected Yammer Groups.
Recently, I have had an issue that one (but not all) of my computers running MS Word has started showing an @ symbol on the comment tool in the review tab. It appears that without me specifically tagging someone, if we are sharing a document (through MS Teams > Sharepoint), they get an email every time I leave a comment. This feature makes collaboration very difficult as I end up unwantingly spamming my co-authors. I have found some articles online as to how to turn this off on my end (receiving), but how do I turn this off so that I quit pushing them out as well? While it is nice to be able to share access to a document, this feature is not helpful for our team. Any assistance as to where this can be controlled would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
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I apologize for all the trouble it has caused and sorry about your time.
As per your description, generally, when we type @ sign before the name in the comments and we can get a noticed mail. However , but you mentioned It appears without you specifically tagging to someone in your Word document.
As per your description, you want to turn off email notifications for replies to comments in a word document . If the file is hosted in OneDrive, the receiver can choose not to receive such email notification, but based on the notification page it appears, as a commenter or poster can’t choose to not send the emails. By default, OneDrive will send the email, it is up to the people in your organization to decide whether they want to receive the emails or not.
To turn off the email notifications in OneDrive.
1.From the gear in you OneDrive account (online) select OneDrive Settings
2.The Notifications Settings open – all are on by default. Slide the toggle to off for “Email notifications when other reply to your comments”.
Also, please refer to the article under How it works “Email” section .
If I have misunderstood or there is anything unclear, please feel free to let us know. We will be glad to help you.
I appreciate your patience and understanding.
