Send messages in the workbook channel to communicate with colleagues, give notes and feedback, and facilitate collaboration.

Spreadsheet.com is designed for collaboration and provides channels where you can work with your team. A Channel is a place where you can send messages to other users. 

Spreadsheet.com workbooks have channels at three levels: the Workbook level (covered in this article), the Row level, and the Cell level. The linked articles cover how messages in the row and cell channels work. But for all channels, users must have the permission level of "Commenter" or higher to comment in a workbook. On channels, all content is displayed in reverse chronological order with the newest messages at the bottom.

Use channels to take notes explaining why you changed the status of an opportunity in your team's CRM workbook, to note the next steps you will take with a bug in your team's bug tracker, or send a to another user on a project for them to respond to.

Accessing the Workbook Channel

You can open the workbook channel by clicking on the message icon in the top right corner of your workbook.

This will open the Workbook messages dialog on the right side of the screen, from where you can view messages (in chronological order from top to bottom) and send new ones to members of your workbook.

To close the Workbook messages dialog, click the x icon in the top right corner, or click again on the message icon in the top right corner of your workbook.

The workbook channel is visible across all worksheets and views in a workbook for all users with permissions at Commenter or above. The workbook channel displays two types of messages:

1. Comments: Messages sent by workbook users, including @Mentions, replies, emojis, and reactions
2. Actions: Messages auto-generated by Spreadsheet.com in response to user actions like adding new users to a workbook.

The message pane of each channel is updated in real-time as messages are added. When a user is composing a note in a channel, other users viewing that channel will see a three-dot indicator letting them know that someone else is currently typing a message.

If you have the workbook channel open, an audible ping will indicate that a user has added a new message to the channel, and the Spreadsheet.com icon may change to notify you of a new message.

Adding a Comment in the Workbook Channel

To add a comment in a workbook channel, compose your message in the text box (indicated by "Add comment") at the bottom of the Workbook messages dialog and press Enter (or Return) on your keyboard, just like in other messaging apps and services.

Comments can include @Mentions and emojis, described below.

Types of Comments

@Mentions

Using @Mentions allows you to talk to a specific user that already has access to your workbook. Messages with @Mentions in the workbook channel will still be visible to all users with access to the channel, but will notify the mentioned user via email that they have been mentioned in the channel. The email notification will display the message content and the sender's name.

To @Mention another user in your message, type an @ symbol before writing their name and select it from the dropdown that appears as you type.

Or, click the @ symbol in the bottom right corner of the text box to access a list of all users in the workbook.

If a user does not appear in the @mentions, then either they have not yet been added to your workbook or do not have sufficient permission to read comments.

Emojis

You can add emojis to your messages via the emoji selector, accessible by clicking on the emoji icon in the bottom right corner of the text box.

Replies

Replies include the message that's being replied to – but not the whole chain of replies – and notify the most recent author of your reply. You can reply to a specific message by hovering over it and clicking the reply icon from the list of options that appears in the top right corner of the message.

The previous message will then appear above your text box and in your comment when you press enter.

Reactions

Reactions are like emojis but in direct response to a message. There can be multiple reactions to a given message, and users can upvote an existing reaction. You can react to an existing message by hovering over it and clicking the emoji icon from the list of options that appears in the top right corner of the message.

This will open the emoji selector, from where you can select your emoji reaction.

Editing and Deleting Messages

In addition to replies and reactions, some users can edit their comments or delete the comments of any other user. These features are determined by permission level, as defined below.

Action Messages

Action messages are auto-generated by the Spreadsheet.com system in response to an action taken by a user. Action messages cannot be edited or deleted by anyone. You cannot react or reply to an action.

In a workbook channel, action messages are added when the workbook is created, when users add a new user, when a user joins the workbook, when a row is created or updated, etc.

Workbook messages are a great way to collaborate and communicate with your team. To add a message to a specific cell or row, try the cell channel or row channel. Or, check out our full suite of articles on Sharing & Collaborating articles to learn more about working collaboratively in Spreadsheet.com.