Use comments, action items, & emoji reactions


               

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You can collaborate with others on Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to:
  • Add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments
  • Assign tasks and action items
  • Add emoji reactions

Add, edit, view, filter or delete comments

Add a comment
  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
  2. Highlight the text, images, cells, or slides you want to comment on.
  3. To add a comment, in the toolbar, click Add comment Add comment.
  4. Type your comment.
  5. Click Comment.
Show, hide, or minimize comments
  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
  2. To open or close the comments panel, at the top right, click Show all comments Open comments.
  3. To hide, minimize, or expand comments next to your document, click View and then Comments.
    • Hide comments: Hides all comments and closes any open comments panel.
    • Minimize comments: Reduces comments to icons in Docs and Sheets, which you can hover over to preview and click to show more.
    • Expand comments: Shows full comments and replies, which you can click to reply or add others.
Find comments
  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

  2. In the top right, click Show all comments Open comments.
  3. Click on a comment to see it's location.

You can also search for a comment by using keywords or usernames:

  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

  2. In the top right, click Show all comments Open comments.
  3. On the right of the Comments panel, click Search all comments Filter comments by keyword.
  4. Enter keywords to search for a comment or person.

Find a comment's location in Google Sheets

In Google Sheets, you can find comment locations for the active sheet.

  1. At the bottom of the active sheet, point to the comment notification on the tab .
  2. In the toolbar that shows up, click the cell location to move to the highlighted cell and comment.
Filter comments

You can filter comments in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

  1. In a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, click Show all comments Open comments.
  2. To show all comments or comments for you, select a tab.
  3. To show open or resolved comments, click All types.
  4. (Optional) In Google Sheets, you can filter comments by sheet. To change the filter to the current sheet, on the right of the "Comments" window, click All Sheets Down arrow.
  5. All comments in that category will appear in the window.
Edit or delete a comment
  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
  2. On the comment you want to edit or delete, click More More.
  3. Click Edit or Delete.
Send a comment to a specific person

To make your comment visible to someone, you can add them to the comment. They will receive an email notification with your comment.

Tip: If someone has set their status to “Out of office” and you have permission to view their calendar, you will get a notification in the comment as you add them.

  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
  2. Insert and type a comment.
  3. Anywhere in your comment, enter "@" and their name or email address. When the correct person is suggested, click their name.
  4. Click Comment.

Note: If you add someone who doesn't have permission to see the file, you will be asked to share the file.

Add more comments after comment limit

You may find an alert on your Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide that says "You've reached the document limit for comments. Please make a copy of the document without resolved comments to continue commenting on the new copy."

To add more comments to your file:

  1. Resolve comments that aren't active.
  2. Go to File and then Make a copy of your document, spreadsheet, or deck.
  3. In the pop-up window, click Copy comments and suggestions.
  4. Use the copy to continue work.

Tip: Resolved comments remain accessible in your original document.

Reply to or close comments

If you have permission to edit or comment on a document, you can reply to comments. When a discussion is finished, you can resolve a comment to close it.

Tip: You can also reply to or close comments directly from your email. Learn how to work with comments in Gmail.

Reply to a comment

Reply to comments in documents or presentations

  1. On your computer, open a document or presentation.
  2. Click the comment.
  3. Click Reply and type your reply.
  4. To save, click Reply.

Tip: In Google Docs, at the bottom of the text box, you can click on a Smart Reply.

Reply to comments in spreadsheets

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet.
  2. On the sheet tab, click Add comment Add comment.
  3. Click the comment you want to reply to.
  4. Click Reply and type your reply.
  5. To save, click Reply.

Tip: If someone has set their status to “Out of office” and you have permission to view their calendar, you get a notification in the comment as you reply to them.

Close or reopen a comment
  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
  2. Click the comment you want to close.
  3. In the top corner of the comment, click Resolve.

To see a comment that you closed, click Comments at the top corner of the window. To reopen a closed comment, click Re-open in the top right corner of the comment.

Use & follow up on action items

Use comments to assign tasks or action items with your work or school account. Suggested action items will appear based on the content in your file.

Assign an action item in a comment
  1. On your computer, open a Google file.
  2. Highlight the text, images, cells, or slides you want to comment on.
  3. To add a comment, go to the toolbar and click Add comment Add comment.
  4. Type your comment.
  5. Somewhere in your comment, add the email address, with @ or + in front of it, of the person you want to assign it to.
  6. Click the box next to "Assign to [name]."
  7. Click Assign. The person you assigned the action item to will get an email.

Tip: If someone has set their status to “Out of office” and you have permission to view their calendar, you get a notification in the comment as you assign it to them.

Reassign an action item
  1. On your computer, open a Google file.
  2. Click the comment.
  3. Click Reply.
  4. Type your comment.
  5. Somewhere in your comment, add the email address, with @ or + in front of it, of the person you want to reassign it to.
  6. Click the box next to "Reassign to [name]."
  7. Click Reassign. The person you assigned the action item to will get an email.
Mark an action item as done
  1. On your computer, open a Google file.
  2. In the top right corner of the comment, click Done Done.
See the follow-ups on a document
  1. On your computer, open the Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides home screen or Google Drive.
  2. In the top right corner of a document, click the number. If you don’t see a number, you don’t have any follow-ups for that document.
  3. You can see the number of open:
    • Action items
    • Suggestions
  4. To go to the first action item or suggestion, click an option from the list.
  5. To close the menu, click the number.

Use emoji reactions in Google Docs, Sheets & Slides

If you can comment or edit a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, you can add emoji reactions to comments in Docs or Sheets or content in Docs or Slides that you highlight.

Add emoji reactions

Tip: If a collaborator already added an emoji reaction, to add your reaction you can click the emoji. You can add multiple emoji to the same selected text or comment.

Add emoji reactions to highlighted content in Google Docs

  1. On your computer, open a Google Doc.
  2. Select the text you want to react to.
  3. Select an option:
    • On the right margin, click Add emoji reaction Add Emoji Reaction.
    • Go to Insert and then Emoji reaction.
  4. Select an option:
    • Choose the emoji you want to add.
    • You can also enter search terms for an emoji.

Add emoji reactions to comments

  1. On your computer, open a Google Doc, Google Sheet or Google Slides.
  2. Hover over the comment you want to react to.
  3. Click Add emoji reaction Add Emoji Reaction.
  4. Select an option:
    • Choose the emoji you want to add.
    • You can also enter search terms for an emoji.
Remove or resolve emoji reactions

To remove your reaction from comments in a Google Doc, Sheet or Slides, or on highlighted content in a Google Doc, click the emoji again.

Tip: If you remove your reaction, it doesn't remove other collaborators' reactions.

To resolve the reaction on highlighted content in a Google Doc:

  1. Click an emoji reaction.
  2. Click Resolve.
    • Tip: To view resolved reactions, at the top right, click Comments Comment.

Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate & reply to comments

You can select a comment and use keyboard shortcuts to:

  • Navigate between comments.
  • Reply to comments.
  • Hide or show comments.

Use keyboard shortcuts on selected comments

Reply to current comment R
Move to next comment J
Move to previous comment K
Resolve current comment E
Exit current comment U
Hide comment

For Windows, Chrome OS: Ctrl + Alt + Shift + n 

For Mac: ⌘ + Alt + Shift + n

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