Send messages in row channels 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 users.

Spreadsheet.com workbooks have channels at three levels: the Workbook level, the Row level (which is covered in this article), and the Cell level. The linked articles cover how messages in the workbook 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 ask questions about a specific opportunity in your team's CRM  workbook, to note the next steps you will take with a bug listed in your team's bug tracker, or send a message @ another user for them to respond.

Accessing the Row Channel

You can access the row channel by expanding the row – double clicking on the row number or right clicking on the row and selecting "Expand row..." from the dropdown. This will open the Row dialog where you can find the row channel on the right side of the dialog.

Messages are displayed here in chronological order from top to bottom and the message pane of each channel is updated in real-time as messages are added.

You can use the row channel to collaborate on data in that row. For instance, in your project plan, ask users about how a particular task is going, when it's expected to be completed, if they need help, and more. The row channel also shows messages from the cell channels of all the cells in that row.

You can tell if a row or cell already has messages in it via a visible flag that will appear in the top-right of the row header or the top-right corner of a cell.

Adding a Comment in the Row Channel

To add a comment in a row channel, compose your message in the text box (indicated by "Add comment") at the bottom of the row messages 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.

If you want to make a comment that will appear across all worksheets and views or about the workbook generally, try a workbook message. Or, you can add messages to specific cells that will appear in the expanded row. Check out our full suite of articles on Sharing & Collaborating articles to learn more about working collaboratively in Spreadsheet.com.