Inline, Inline commenting

[Craig Lambie]

I was lead here by a question I posted on Stack Exchange.

https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/81775/comment-tracking-in-google-docs-or-similar-with-replys

I am looking for a software that has the same look as "suggesting" in Google Docs, but is a simple "live" document with dot points. No canban cards, no fancy anything. Just tracking who has said what and when, with colours or similar per editor

Something like this:

I think the comment feature is good, but it is not "in the page" like the suggesting part. How would I make comments work "in the document" like the above? Automatically, so any non tech person could write a comment without having to worry about changing the font colour etc. Google docs knows who changed what text for example, so it would be like "seeing" the colours of the edits, or turning them on?

---

In Confluence you can @mention someone, but it doesn't have colour codes.

The "inline comment" system is the same as Google Docs, always on the side bar.
I would prefer it to be more like when I reply inline to an Email, I can write below, maybe indented a bit, when replying to a specific issue within the text.

I think I am dreaming of an old, retired Google tool that did this - and maybe no one else in the world wanted it then, or now... and that is why it was retired... 

But love to know what this community think...

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Craig Lambie and welcome to the Community!

One wise person once said - in Latin: "de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est" - it does not make any sense to argue about taste and colour. So, if you like colours: great! If others don't: equally great!

In software and design for quite some time we take into account that some of us have trouble with colours. For colourblind people e.g. they just don't work. So indeed, colouring stuff has become more of a thing that you like, rather than that you need to indicate certain things.

That aside, comments in Confluence are not the essence of the page. When you write content IN a page, you can do so - even collaboratively. If you want, you can use colours, emoji's, images and all kinds of stuff to make things more lively.

Comments are meant to pull people into that collaborative process asynchronously. You mention someone because you want his/her opinion or because you read something and want to signal this out to the author(s). Once action has been taken, the idea is to easily reply to this comment thread and even close the thread once it's been dealt with. After that: your page is where the result is kept.

Every page has a page history, where you can review historic changes. So they don't get lost.

Hope this helps!

[Craig Lambie]

Thanks for the comments @Walter Buggenhout 

It is funny, once I built a system for an insurance company - to do quoting. Took me 4 months to build this incredible calculating machine that could work out premiums and send quotes and follow ups etc.

However, it was the 15 minute job of making the Ux customisable to the logged in user that won over the team I was trying to bring across from their old ways to the new system.

So, yes. It does not make any sense to argue over taste and colour - that is taste. 
However - allowing people to do it is what wins people!

Factor is another story!
I get commenting on issues on the side is great, and useful if the document is the outcome you are after.
However, typically this is not the case for hundreds of people in my profession.

We would write a list of issues, like:

1. The dog is red
2. The dog needs to be certified and documentation provided
3. Document x provided is the wrong one

And the outcome of this is not a document, but the issues dealt with and completed in themselves - sometimes with the need for discussion on each one - which is why I like the idea of inline commenting, and that each comment by differentiated from the others by something (ie. colour, which is not available in this comment box)
Reply like:

1. The dog is red
    I see it as pink, why does it matter the colour?
2. The dog needs to be certified and documentation provided
   no problem, attached is the cert
3. Document x provided is the wrong one
   sorry, I have attached doc y now, should be the right one

Then another collaborator might add

1. The dog is red
    I see it as pink, why does it matter the colour?
    It is definitely red IMO
2. The dog needs to be certified and documentation provided
   no problem, attached is the cert
   Thanks, received and checked
3. Document x provided is the wrong one
   sorry, I have attached doc y now, should be the right one
   Thanks it is correct

And then another collaborator might add

1. The dog is red
    I see it as pink, why does it matter the colour?
         I also see it as pink
    It is definitely red IMO
2. The dog needs to be certified and documentation provided
   no problem, attached is the cert
   Thanks, received and checked
3. Document x provided is the wrong one
   sorry, I have attached doc y now, should be the right one
   Thanks it is correct

=======
Imagine this with the help of colour/ code/ something

Then another collaborator might add

1. The dog is red (colour coded black and hover to see: "CL timestamp")
    I see it as pink, why does it matter the colour? (colour coded orange and hover to see: "JB timestamp")
    It is definitely red IMO (colour coded blue and hover to see: "HJ timestamp")
2. The dog needs to be certified and documentation provided (colour coded black and hover to see: "CL timestamp")
   no problem, attached is the cert (colour coded orange and hover to see: "JB timestamp")
   Thanks, received and checked (colour coded red and hover to see: "CL timestamp")
3. Document x provided is the wrong one (colour coded black and hover to see: "CL timestamp")
   sorry, I have attached doc y now, should be the right one (colour coded orange and hover to see: "JB timestamp")
   Thanks it is correct (colour coded red and hover to see: "CL timestamp")

red, orange and blue are comments

black is the original list / document created by the author of the page/ email