Comment on records and @mention people
This guide shows you how to add a Comment to a record, give it a priority, @mention a colleague, reply to start a thread, and edit or delete your own comments. A Comment is a note you attach to a record. It supports threaded replies, @mentions, a priority, and an edit history, and it is kept separate from the data audit log so your discussion never alters the record of changes.
You work with comments in two places:
- On a record's Activity Timeline panel, under the Comments tab — where you add and read comments in context.
- In the Activity Hub, on the Comments tab (
/activity-hub/comments) — where you review comments across many records at once.
You can comment on most record types across the product — Sites, Locations, field artifacts, monitoring records, Samples, Chains of Custody, Lab Reports, Lab Analyses, Lab Results, Projects, Programs, the Directory entities (Organizations, Laboratories, Contacts, Equipment), and reference data.
- Role required: An internal user role. You see and add comments on the records you can access; an Administrator sees comments on all records.
- Prerequisites: The record you want to comment on already exists, and its Activity Timeline panel is open.
Add a comment
- Open the record's Activity Timeline panel and select the Comments tab.
- In the composer at the bottom, type your comment. Comment text is limited to
4000characters. - To set the importance, choose a level from the priority picker beside the composer. The default is Normal — see Priority levels.
- Optionally use the flag toggle (beside the priority control) to add the comment to the action queue until someone marks it resolved. The flag is lit automatically for High and Critical comments; you can turn it off, or turn it on for a Normal/Low comment you want tracked — see Track a comment to resolution. Changing the priority re-applies that priority's default, so set the priority first, then adjust the flag.
- Select Send. Your comment appears in the timeline, newest first, attributed to your name and the current time.
@mention someone
@mentioning a colleague draws their attention to a comment and notifies them.
- While typing in the composer, enter
@and continue typing the person's name. - Choose the person from the list that appears. Their name is inserted as a highlighted mention chip, both as you type and on the posted comment.
- Finish the comment and select Send.
Each person you mention receives a Mentioned in a comment notification (in-app
and, by default, email). You can mention up to 50 people in one comment. Locked
users do not appear in the list and cannot be mentioned. Mentions notify only
internal users who can access the record's Site or Project; a pick outside that
scope is skipped silently.
Reply to a comment
Replying to a comment starts a thread under it.
- On the comment you want to answer, select Reply. A bar appears reading Replying to the comment's author.
- Type your reply in the composer and select Send. Your reply is grouped with its parent comment.
The author of the parent comment receives a Reply to my comment notification (in-app by default; email is off by default). To cancel before sending, select the x on the Replying to bar.
Edit a comment
You can edit only your own comments. An Administrator can edit any comment.
- On your comment, select Edit. The text opens in an editor.
- Change the text and select Save, or select Cancel to discard the change.
Edits are tracked. The first edit within a 5-minute window of posting — the
quick-edit grace (5 minutes) — passes without recording history; any later edit
records an edit-history entry, and the comment is marked (edited). You can
edit a comment up to 10 times.
An Administrator editing someone else's comment can record a Reason for edit (optional) with the change. The original author's quick-edit grace does not apply to an administrator editing another person's comment.
Delete a comment
Deleting a comment removes it from view. You can delete only your own comments; an Administrator can delete any comment.
- On the comment, select Delete. The Delete Comment dialog opens.
- Read "This action cannot be undone." and select Delete.
Comments are soft-deleted. Afterwards, everyone except an Administrator sees a
[deleted] placeholder in place of the text and author; an Administrator still
sees the original content and who deleted it.
Track a comment to resolution
A comment can be an action item — something that needs to be dealt with, not just read. High and Critical comments become action items automatically; any comment can be made one (see Add a comment). Open action items appear in the Needs you queue on your dashboard and keep a Needs resolution marker until someone resolves them.
Resolving is a team action: anyone who can access the record can resolve or reopen a comment — not only its author. The priority is never changed, so you can always see that a comment was Critical.
- Resolve — on an open action item, select Mark resolved and confirm. The comment gets a Resolved marker (showing who resolved it and when), is dimmed in the timeline, and drops out of the dashboard queue.
- Reopen — on a resolved comment, select Reopen and confirm. It returns to the action queue with a Needs resolution marker. Use this when you don't think it was truly resolved.
- Flag for resolution — on a comment that isn't an action item, add it to the queue.
- Clear resolution requirement — on an action item, remove it from the queue (this also clears any resolved marker).
Both Resolve and Reopen ask you to confirm first, so a misclick can't silently change the queue.
Priority levels
Every comment carries a priority. Pick it from the priority picker beside the composer; Normal is the default. Priority is shown as a pill on the comment and is a filter in the Activity Hub.
| Priority | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Low | L | Minor note; low importance |
| Normal | N | The default for an everyday comment |
| High | H | Needs attention soon; becomes an action item by default |
| Critical | C | Highest importance; becomes an action item by default |
High and Critical comments are added to the action queue automatically — see Track a comment to resolution.
Review comments in the Activity Hub
The Activity Hub gathers comments from across the records you can access into one list, so you can scan recent discussion without opening each record.
- Open the Activity Hub and select the Comments tab (
/activity-hub/comments). - Select Filters to narrow the list. You can filter by Site, Project, date range, author, entity type, priority, and Resolution status (Any status, Needs resolution, or Resolved), and you can toggle Include deleted comments, Only comments that mention me, and Only replies to my comments.
- Use the toolbar search box, sort by any column, and use a column's filter dropdown (on Author, Priority, Status, Site, Project, and Entity) to narrow the list. Search and column filters run on the server across every comment you can access, and combine with any Filters popup settings.
- Select a row to open that record so you can read the full thread in its Activity Timeline.
The grid pages through every comment you can access on the server, newest first — there is no row cap. Paging, sorting, and searching all run server-side, so they apply to the whole list rather than one loaded page. Use the toolbar page-size selector to change how many rows load at a time. When you filter to Needs resolution, the list leads with the highest-priority open items.
The list shows these columns:
| Column | Shows |
|---|---|
| Time | When the comment was posted |
| Author | Who posted it |
| Priority | The comment's priority pill |
| Status | Needs resolution or Resolved for an action item; a non-action-item shows — (and filters as (Blanks)) |
| Site | The Site the record belongs to, or — |
| Project | The Project the record belongs to, or — |
| Entity | The type of record commented on |
| Identifier | The record's identifier |
| Comment | The comment text, with markers for replies, mentions of you, edits, and deletions |
Export (XLSX or CSV from the toolbar) covers every comment matching the current
filters and search — not just the page on screen. A deleted comment exports with the
same masking you see on screen, so a non-administrator gets the [deleted]
placeholder rather than the original text. The grid shows Time in your local time
zone; the exported Time (UTC) column is in UTC, so the file reads consistently
wherever it is opened. A very large Excel export is capped at 100,000 rows; export to
CSV to include every matching row.
Result
Your comment is saved to the record and appears at the top of the Comments tab, attributed to you, with its priority pill. Anyone you mentioned and the author of any comment you replied to receive a notification. The comment also appears in the Activity Hub Comments tab for everyone who can access the record.
Figure: what happens when you send a comment.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| A person does not appear in the @mention list | They are a locked (deactivated) user, or not an internal user you can mention | Locked users cannot be mentioned; have an Administrator unlock the account if needed |
| Send stays disabled | The comment text is empty | Enter some text; an empty comment cannot be sent |
| Edit is not offered on a comment | You are not the author | Only the author can edit their own comment; an Administrator can edit any |
| "Maximum number of edits (10) reached." | The comment has already been edited 10 times | Add a new comment instead of editing further |
| "No changes detected in the comment text." | You selected Save without changing the text | Change the text, or select Cancel |
A comment shows as [deleted] | It was soft-deleted; non-administrators see a placeholder | An Administrator can still view the original content and who deleted it |
| Mark resolved is not offered | The comment is not an action item (it doesn't require resolution) | Use Flag for resolution to add it to the queue first; High/Critical comments are action items automatically |
| A resolved comment still shows its High/Critical pill | By design — resolving never changes priority, so you can see it was urgent | None needed; it has dropped out of the dashboard queue |
| An Excel export of the Activity Hub list says it was capped at 100,000 rows | The XLSX format is built in memory and capped to keep the file manageable | Export to CSV instead — it streams every matching row with no cap |
| You are not notified about a mention or reply | Your notification preferences turn that channel off | Adjust them at Account → Notification Preferences (see account management) |
Related
- Activity Timeline — read a single record's comments and change history in context.
- Notifications — how mentions and replies reach you, and how to manage them.
- Account management — set your Notification Preferences for mentions and replies.
- Activity Hub overview — other ways to review activity across records.