Overview of comments and discussions

If you want to have a conversation about Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides that you’re working on, you can leave comments directly in files to ask questions, make notes, or highlight changes you’ve made.

You can then edit or delete your comments, as well as reply to comments made by others and close comment threads when you’re finished with them.

Add, edit, or delete comments

To communicate with others about specific parts of a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, or to include notes about changes you're making, you can insert a comment in your file.

Please note that even if you're viewing or editing a file anonymously, comments that you add to the file will not be anonymous if you are signed into a Google Account.

Add a comment

1. Open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
2. Highlight information you’d like to comment on, like text, images, cells, or slides.
3. Add a comment in one of the following ways:
   • Click the Comment button in the toolbar.
   • Go to the Insert menu > Comment.
   • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + M (Cmd + Option + M on a Mac).
4. Type your comment in the box that appears to the right of the file.
5. Click Comment to save the comment.

Edit or delete a comment

1. Open the file where you made the comment.
2. Select the comment you want to edit or delete.
3. Click Edit or Delete right below your comment text.

Direct a comment to a specific person

To make sure that a specific person sees a note meant for them, you can address a comment to a specific person so that they receive an email notification about your comment.

1. Open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
2. Highlight the information you want to comment on.
3. Go to the Insert menu > Click Comment > Type in your comment.
4. Somewhere in your comment, add a + plus followed by the email address of the person you want to see the message, for example: +johndoe@google.com.
5. Click Comment to save the comment.

If the person in the comment doesn’t have access to the file, you will be asked to adjust the sharing settings on the file to allow that person to see your comment.

Reply to or close comments

If you have edit or comment access, you can reply to comments made by others in your files. When a discussion is finished, you can close a comment to resolve it.

Reply to a comment

1. Open the file that includes the comment you want to reply to.
2. Select the relevant comment.
3. Click the text box that says “Reply” and add your reply.
4. Click the Reply button.

Close a comment

1. Open the file that includes the comment you want to close.
2. Select the relevant comment.
3. Click Resolve in the top-right corner of the comment.

Get notifications about comments

You can find out when others are leaving comments in your files by setting up email notifications for comments.

1. Open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
2. Click Comments in the top-right corner of your file.
3. Click Notifications.
4. Choose a notification setting for how often you want to receive emails about comments:
   1. All: Whenever any comments are made in the file.
   2. Replies to you: Whenever others reply to comments you have made.
   3. None: Never receive emails about comments for that file.