Add comments
How to add comments in Ellipsus
Need to leave feedback, ask questions, or workshop ideas with your collaborators? Ellipsus supports inline commenting, with a few features that make it different from traditional word processors!
Commenting happens in drafts
In Ellipsus, comments can only be added to drafts—not to the main version of a document. This allows collaborators to leave feedback without directly altering the original document, and gives the document owner full control over how and when to incorporate edits.
What is a draft?
A draft is a standalone copy of your document. Writers use drafts to:
Collaborate with co-writer, beta readers, or editors
Collect and manage comments and feedback
Explore edits without changing the main version
And (much) more!
When a draft is ready, it can be merged back into the main document—but note:
Comments do not carry over when a draft is merged.
For more on using drafts, see our article: Create and merge drafts.
Inviting collaborators to comment
To enable someone to leave comments, you must invite them with one of the following roles:
Can edit: They can create and edit drafts, add comments, and participate in chat.
Can merge: They can do all of the above, plus merge drafts into the main document.
To learn more about access levels and permissions, see: How to collaborate in Ellipsus.
Creating a draft for commenting
There are two ways to create a draft:
From your dashboard:
Click the three dot menu on a document card
Select + New draft
From within a document:
Open the Comments panel in the right sidebar
Click + Create a new draft when prompted
How to leave a comment
Open the draft and navigate to the Comments panel on the right sidebar
Highlight the text you'd like to comment on
Type your comment in the space provided
Use formatting tools to bold, italicize, or underline text
Click Comment to submit
Your comment will now appear linked to that portion of the draft for others to see and respond to.
You can also reply to comments by writing in the prompt (Share your thoughts…) beneath an existing comment.
Commenting with multiple collaborators
You can invite as many collaborators as you'd like to a document.
All collaborators can participate in the same draft, or separate drafts of their own.
All collaborators can reply to comments.
Only the document owner or collaborators with the Can merge role can resolve comments
Your comments are tagged with your display name and chosen icon—this is the only identifying information visible to others in the doc.
Only document owners can see their collaborators’ email addresses—collaborators cannot see each other’s.
Notifications in Ellipsus
The notification center—available from both the dashboard and editor (from the bell icon)—makes it easy to stay up to date on your comments.
Check out our Manage notifications article.
What’s next?
We’re always planning for more comments improvements. Check out our Ideas board to stay up to date, or add your own feature ideas!