Release 2016-08-06 Comments feature request & loss of functionality

Jeremy Myers

Another problem w new notes:

 

When I search and click on the result I jump to the apprpriate note but then I have to open every <view more> on the thread and visually scan every line to find what I am seeking.  

 

Search and find is therefore now useless in notes.  

 

 

Alex Vorobiev

Jeremy - you are absolutely right.  Already working on fixing this.  Thanks for pointing it out and appreciate your patience.

Allan Ross

Another day, another client complaint regarding the new comment function. 

Allan Ross

So we are contracting with a new provider to design a substitute for the comments section and will be rolling it out to our clients. We will continue, for the time being, to use smartsheets for other functionalities. 

Alex Vorobiev

Based on your aggregate feedback, we are targeting early September for a number of usability improvements to Comments, including expand / collapse, and improved readability.

 

Thanks for your patience.

Brad Jones

I just have to say WOW at how displeased I am with this new change!  I have not found a benefit, but I have found several detriments in just the first day of playing with it.  I got back from vacation and found out that SS had fundamentally and detrimentally changed my user's interface for the most important cell in a sheet (the discussion).

 

This new format is super hard to read, and has caused some serious problems for me.  Now, I may look at a discussion thread and see Aug 8. at the top, Aug. 15 in the middle, and Aug. 3 at the bottom.  It's completely out of order and I REALLY don't like it.  This was a step backwards in useability and readability.

I am now spending extra time in my day trying to explain to users who are already not happy having to learn a new system that they must now change what they have already learned (and I have already written a user manual for!!!)

 

PLEASE PUT IT BACK.

 

How about we fix what IS broken before we "fix" what already works quite well.

(Like our data security holes, and lack of true sheet/workspace backups)

 

 

UPDATE 08/23 - After all the hotfixes, we are able to maintain our previous workflow as long as people don't use the reply functions.  We still want to be able to turn off the "See All" condensation that's happening, but at least now our comments are in order and they have the title of the primary column.

 

Thank You Smartsheet for working on this to get it to fit better.  

 

 

All, check out your notifications and conversations.  You should see that it basially works the same as before, albeit a bit less visually clear.

 

Still, we are missing the workspace view of comments, and this is a BIG loss of functionality that I still want back.  Why was this sacrificed?

Brad Jones

Resurrected!!

 

Email sent to the API group about this.  I'm still missing the workspace level view of the comments, and though I have gotten over the other changes by rewriting my user manual and retraining 250 people, I can't get passed losing this super useful feature.

 

Brad Jones

BUMP

Would like to see this feature come back in some fashion.  Time was that a project manager could open the workspace level comments and see all of the activity going on in their project in one place, and in chronological order.

After the 'upgrade', that same PM will have to go through every single sheet in the workspace one by one to get the status of their project.  Big step backwards in functionality and convenience.