New comments functionality.

rayskyy
rayskyy
edited 12/09/19 in Smartsheet Basics

Plain and simple its awful. Actually, to a large degree unusable by our employees and external customers.

1. forced ascending order. does not work for us at all.

2. hitting return on your keyboard - posts the comments. super annoying.

3. "All" comments view. No idea how anyone thought this would be useful. Its confusing taking comments outside the context of the task (row) they are associated with.

4. Fixed position. It has to be to the right and I cannot move it onto my second screen (on its own). Not a good place for it. In addition, I cannot make it big (as in a lot bigger).



I am really surprised this was done to such a great problem. Judging by the myriads of complaints it really should be removed or at the very least made optional.

Comments

  • Andrée Starå
    Andrée Starå ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi Ray,

    Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment to have your vote added

    A New Way to Submit Your Feature Requests

    To make your Enhancement / Feature Request count, send in the form above because there isn’t a guarantee, it will be registered otherwise.

    Original Post: https://community.smartsheet.com/announcement/new-way-submit-your-feature-requests

    Hope that helps!

    Have a fantastic day!

    Best,

    Andrée Starå

    Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

    work-bold

    SMARTSHEET EXPERT CONSULTANT & PARTNER

    Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

    W: www.workbold.com | E:andree@workbold.com | P: +46 (0) - 72 - 510 99 35

    Feel free to contact me for help with Smartsheet, integrations, general workflow advice, or anything else.

  • ricki
    ricki ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Here here! Completely AGREE with every point here! I also think it unfair that we have to make a request to get functionality back that we have had for years ..... this is not an enhancement but a reversal of a decline in functionality

  • Paul Newcome
    Paul Newcome ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    In reference to #3...

     

    Clicking on the speech box to the right of the row number or (using row 6 as an example) clicking in the Conversations listing on "Row 6" next to the name of whoever posted the comment will both filter the conversations to only show those comments made specific to that row.

     

    A screenshot for where to click for each of the filtering options is provided.

    Comm_0.PNG

    Comm1_5.PNG

  • Thank you for the feedback. We did significant customr research on this feature, as well as a private beta and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We realize that the experience hasn't been good for some of you and I am sorry for that. We'll be making enhancements and fixes to improve this experience for you.

    Some that are already top of mind for us are improving performance when attachments are on comments, adjusting scrolling behavior, and making it easier to enter new lines. Myself and the team would like to speak with others about enhancements that we can make to improve your experience. Feel free to use this link to set up time with me.

    Many users are not aware that you can press Shift+Enter to enter a new line without saving the comment. We're looking at ways to improve this too, but that may help some of you right away.

    Again, sorry this hasn't been a great experience for some of you. We're committed to enhancing this feature to provide you a great conversational experience in Smartsheet.



    Scott Willeke

    Director of Product Management

  • Hi. Yes, I am aware of that - however, I am questioning what is the use of the "all" view and/or why time was wasted on it and yet important functions like a descending time line, shift - return to create a new line (horrible) and the ability to operate comments in a separate window (so I can move to another screen or re-size) were neglected.

  • rayskyy
    rayskyy
    edited 10/14/19

    Thanks for looping back. That said, and judging by the comments here (and other threads), I am not convinced that the new comments feature is overwhelmingly positive. If it is, then your beta sampling is likely not adequate enough and/or does not cover enough use cases or company types.

    I am aware that Shift+Enter is a way of doing a new line without posting. The issue with that is that its not a natural way to write comments and inevitably (more so on long comments) - you end up posting it by mistake.

    My main issues are that there is no way of making the posts in descending order ( and make that sticky) and there is no way of moving the "comments" window off screen to make it bigger (or onto another screen). In other words its very cramped, busy looking and lacks flexibility. 



    I am sure you may address some of these points - but in all honesty - they should have been addressed first before you enforced this upgrade on us.  At the very least, you should have provided an option to use "legacy comments" during the transition.



    Thanks for your time.

     

  • Paul Newcome
    Paul Newcome ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    I personally like the "all" view. It allows me to see everything in one place without having to select specific rows and flip back and forth between those and sheet comments.

    .

    I also like being able to just hit "Enter" to post a new comment as opposed to enter just creating a new line.

     

    I can't even begin to tell you how many times when using the old way I would get done typing and then hit enter to post just to have to then delete the unused line, reach over for my mouse, find the pointer's location across multiple screens, move it all the way over to the middle of the screen just to click ok then have to move it back to somewhere else out of the way so the pointer wasn't visible.

    .

    The ascending timeline also makes more sense to me because (in my opinion) it flows better with the way new replies are nested under the original comment.

    .

    I will agree with you though on the separate window thing. That would be nice to have back along with the ability to resize. I personally prefer a more horizontal layout than vertical.

  • ricki
    ricki ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    And i can't even begin to tell you how many times i have hit enter in the new system to get a new line only to find the comment submitted and then i have to move the mouse to click on to edit the comment and then remember to hit shift-enter

     

    You are lucky if most of your comments are only one line but most of mine have more than one paragraph

     

    I also agree with the prior comment. My sheet has thousands of comments (probably tens of thousands) on it and i cannot see a reason why being able to view all comments or all attachments would ever be useful to me

     

    I do agree that a horizontal layout would be an improvement to the vertical or at least put the vertical on the left side instead of the right .....

  • thats fair enough - and exactly why they need to make all this optional and not absolute.