rallyHelpChapter 2 · Canvases / 2.6
Comments
Point at a sentence, a cell, a part of an image or a spot on a website, and send Rally a comment about exactly that.
"The second paragraph is too long" works until there are two second paragraphs. Comments let you point instead of describe: you pick the exact part of what Rally made, write what you think, and the comment arrives in the conversation with that part quoted, so Rally and everyone else know precisely what you meant.
Leave a comment
- Open what Rally made in the panel on the right.
- Click Comment mode in the panel's header (the pointer with a speech bubble, just before Expand). The button turns blue and the pointer changes.
- Move over the page. Rally outlines the block a click would pick.
- Click to pick that block, double-click to pick a single word, or drag to pick a range.
- Type your comment in the box that opens beside it and press Return or click Send.
The comment stays pinned beside what you picked, and a chip for it appears in the message box. Pick more parts and comment on each if you like; each one gets its own chip. Then send the message as usual. You can add words of your own to the message, or send the comments on their own.
While picking, ⌥ Option or ↑ grows the outline to the list or section around it, and ↓ shrinks it again. Esc leaves Comment mode and keeps the comments you already confirmed.
To change a comment before you send it, click it to reopen it. The × on a comment or on its chip removes it.
What you can comment on
| What Rally made | What you can pick |
|---|---|
| Documents and text | A word, a passage or a whole block |
| PDFs and Word files | Passages of their text |
| Spreadsheets | A cell, a range, a row, a column or a whole sheet |
| Images | A rectangular area |
| Websites | Any element on the page |
What happens when you send
Your message lands in the conversation with each comment shown as a quoted excerpt of what you picked. Everyone in the Canvas sees it, and so does Rally. Rally reads the comment together with the exact version you were looking at, makes the change, and publishes the next version.
So a comment is a message like any other. There is no separate comments list to keep tidy and nothing to resolve. If the comment was a question rather than a request, Rally answers it in the conversation instead.
Tip
You can comment on an older version too. Rally knows which version you were looking at, so "put this paragraph back" works even after three rewrites.
Comments you have not sent
A comment you confirmed but have not sent is part of your draft. It waits for you if you switch to another Canvas or quit Rally, the same as the text of an unsent message (see The message box). Like the rest of a draft, it is kept on this Mac only.
If a comment on an image cannot be saved, Rally says The crop could not be uploaded. If the preview itself cannot take comments yet, it says The preview could not be prepared for comments. Close the panel and open it again.
Next: the people you share a Canvas with, in People in a Canvas.