Comments and Annotations in Box Notes

You can comment on a Box Note, or select to highlight any portion of a note and annotate that portion. Each time someone comments on or annotates a file, Box sends email notifications to anyone who owns or has joined the folder that contains the file. This makes it easier for teams to work together and provide quick feedback.

Annotating a Box Note

1. Select to highlight the text you want to annotate.
2. Select the annotation icon.

3. Enter your feedback.
4. Select the button arrow icon to post.

The text you’ve annotated is highlighted with a yellow background.  Your annotation displays whenever someone else hovers over the highlighted text.  Text with multiple annotations is highlighted in a brighter, deeper yellow.

You can view and respond to annotations both on the text and in the sidebar as well.

Only collaborators with editor or co-owner access can annotate a Box note.

You can also respond to an existing annotation:

1. Hover over the existing annotation
2. Select Reply.

Your text is appended to the existing annotation, and your response prompts Box to send out another email notification.

You can also leave a comment on the entire document. To do this:

1. In the top right, select the Comment icon to open the Comments sidebar.
2. Enter your comment
3. Select Post.

You can delete any Box Note comments that you added. To delete a collaborator’s comment on a Box Note you own, use the Box API.

Any user with edit access to a Note is now able to:

• Edit a comment after posting it (only editing your own comments is possible).
• Copy a link to a specific comment and share it with someone (so entering such a link will immediately scroll to proper comment).

@Mention

You can use @mentions to tag someone in the Box Note.

1. Type the @ symbol, followed by the name or email of the people you want to tag.
2. Depending if the user is internal or external, you can: a. Invite b. Share a link
3. Select permission level a. Editor b. Viewer Once selected, the user you added will have access to the Box note and be sent an email notification, depending on that user’s permission settings.

To receive notifications when a file has been annotated or commented upon, you must enable your notification settings for comments for either In Items I Own or In Items I’ve Joined. More information on folder settings.

Replying to annotations

You can add a reply to an existing annotation. Nested replies—a reply to a reply and so on—are not supported.

To reply to an annotation:

1. In the Comments panel, select the annotation, or select the highlighted commented text in the Note.
2. Select Reply.
3. In the Write a reply… field, enter your response.
4. Select Post.

Formatting text in a comment or annotation

You can apply basic formatting to make feedback clearer and easier to scan. Rich text, such as numbered or bulleted lists, is supported in comments, annotations, and their replies.

To format text as you write:

1. In the Comments panel, select the field where you’re writing a comment, annotation, or reply.
2. Enter your text, then select the text you want to format.
3. In the formatting toolbar, select Bold or Italic.

You can also apply formatting with keyboard shortcuts: Cmd/Ctrl + B for bold and Cmd/Ctrl + I for italic. Formatting is preserved when you edit a comment or annotation.

Notifications

When you @mention someone within an annotation, Box sends an email and a Box notification to that person. The email and Box notification contain a link to the annotation on the board, where threaded replies are displayed.

Editing an annotation

You can edit replies you own at any time. When you edit an annotation, Box adds the Edited label to the annotation. The email and Box notification contain a link to the annotation on the board, where threaded replies are displayed.

To edit an annotation:

1. Adjacent to the annotation, select the ellipsis (…) button.
2. Select Edit.
3. Enter and edit the annotation.
4. Select Save.

Deleting an annotation

You can delete annotations you own at any time. When you delete the top level annotation or global comment, the replies attached with it are deleted.

To delete an annotation you own:

1. Adjacent to the annotation, select the ellipsis (…) button.
2. Select Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion by selecting Delete.

Resolving an annotation

Annotations are in either an Unresolved or Resolved status, and can be resolved by anyone.  Resolved annotations can be reverted back to Unresolved status.

Individual replies within an annotation cannot be resolved.

To resolve an annotation:

1. Adjacent to the annotation, select the checkmark icon.
2. Box displays the Resolved badge in the annotation.

To restore an annotation to an Unresolved state:

1. Adjacent to the annotation, select the checkmark icon.
2. Box removes the Resolved badge in the annotation.

Filtering annotations

You can filter annotations, and their threaded replies, based on:

• All
• Unresolved/Resolved
• Mention Me

The default is All.

The setting you select is cached at the file level, so Box applies the last-used filter on a particular Note file in subsequent visits.

Box sorts filtered replies in ascending order, from top to bottom, based on the date and time of the top-level annotation or global comment.

To filter annotations: at the top of the Comments sidebar, select the type of filter you want. Box displays the filtered comments, annotations, and threaded replies.

To receive notifications when a file has been annotated or commented upon, you must enable your notification settings for comments for either “In Items I Own” or “In Items I’ve Joined”. More information on folder settings.