Send messages in cell channels to communicate with colleagues, give notes and feedback, and facilitate collaboration.

Spreadsheet.com is designed for collaboration and provides channels where users can work on teams. A Channel is a place where you can send messages to users.

Use the cell channel to ask questions or make comments about the data in a cell. For instance, ask if there is an update on the status of an opportunity in your team's CRM workbook, explain why you downgraded the severity of a bug in your team's bug tracker, or send a message @ a user about an upcoming deadline on the team's project plan.

Spreadsheet.com workbooks have channels at three levels: the Workbook level, the Row level, and the Cell level (covered in this article). The linked articles cover how messages in the workbook and row 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.

Accessing the Cell Channel

You can access a cell's cell channel by right clicking on the cell and selecting "Cell messages..." from the dropdown.

This will open the cell messages dialog which will display messages in chronological order from top to bottom and update in real-time as messages are added.

The specificity of cell messages allows you to collaborate around the data inputted into specific cells.

Adding a Comment in the Cell Channel

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

Check out our article on the Workbook channel if you wish to send users comments about elements in the entire workbook, or our article on the Row channel for comments that pertain to all of the data in a row. Check out our full suite of articles on Sharing & Collaborating articles to learn more about working collaboratively in Spreadsheet.com.