Specify Web document discussion settings

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About managing Web document discussions

The Web document discussions feature enables users to attach comments to a Web page or to any document that can be opened with a browser (such as .htm, .xls, .doc, and .ppt files). Users can place comments in the document or have them appear in the discussion pane at the bottom of the Web browser window. All comments are stored on the SharePoint team Web site. Anyone reviewing a document can view and reply to comments. The document owner can then review discussions and incorporate changes based on the feedback received.

Managing discussions involves:

  • Enabling or disabling discussions for the team Web site 

  • Specifying discussion settings

  • Monitoring discussions

  • Deleting old discussions

You can also specify whether team members can discuss any document on the Internet or just those on the team Web site. You can also specify how long discussion threads will be saved.

Note   Don't confuse the Web document discussions feature with the discussion boards that you can create. A discussion board is a Web page on your team Web site that hosts discussions. The Web document discussions feature appears within individual documents.

  1. On the Site Administration page, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change web discussion settings.

  2. In the Enable Web Discussions option, click the On or Off button.

  3. If Web document discussions are enabled, specify whether members may create discussions for documents located anywhere on the Internet or only those on the team Web site.

    • To allow discussions for documents located anywhere on the Internet, in the Web Discussions Settingsarea, click Documents located anywhere on the Web.

    • To allow discussions for documents on the team Web site only, in the Web Discussions Settingsarea, click Documents located on this server only.

  4. To delete old discussion entries automatically, select the Automatically delete stored discussions aftercheckbox. Then, in the field provided, type the number of days that you want discussion entries to appear before they are deleted.

  5. Click Submit.

Note   If you don't see the Change web discussion settings option, you are probably in a subweb and need to go to the top-level Web site of the server or virtual server. See your network administrator or ISP for more information.