Fractal comments allow you to create comments inside Workflowy and reply to them to have discussions
Comments can branch infinitely. You can also reply to someone's entire comment or just to a specific point they've made. This allows you to have rich, deep discussions about very complex topics in a simple and manageable way.
You can do anything inside a comment that you can in a normal Workflowy bullet like zooming in, nesting items, adding images, and even changing the layout.
Note: To start using comments, you need to invite users to a share via email or secret link. Those users need to have 'Can edit' or 'Admin' permissions in order to have conversations.
Create a comment
You can start a conversation by mousing over any item in a share and clicking the 'Discuss' icon to the right of it.
Note: Comments are not sent automatically and no-one can see your reply until you publish it. Unpublished comments are automatically saved as drafts
1. Mouse over any item in a share 2. Click the 'Discuss' icon that appears on the right side 3. Click it to create a new comment 4. Mention people with the @ symbol 5. Click 'Post' or hit the keyboard shortcut
Reply to a comment
You can reply to any comment to start a conversation, whether you're mentioned or not.
Note: When you create a reply, the person that created the comment and anyone else mentioned will be automatically mentioned in your draft reply with @.
1. Locate a comment you want to reply to 2. Click anywhere in the comment 3. Hit [Enter] to start drafting a reply and start a conversation 4. Write your reply 5. Click 'Post' or hit the keyboard shortcut
Start a new thread
You can also start a new conversation where one already exists. Above every discussion there will be a '+New' button you can click to start a completely new thread.
Doing this will create a new parallel discussion thread.
1. Locate an existing discussion 2. Click on the '+New' link in the top right side 3. Mention people with the @ symbol 4. Click 'Post' or hit the keyboard shortcut
View unread comments
You will be notified of any unread comments in the menu bar by a blue notification dot, and by a ‘Comments’ counter in the left-hand sidebar when it is expanded. From here you can navigate your unreads with a widget on the top right-hand side of the screen, and mark comments as read.
1. Click the notification dot in the menu bar or the unread button in the sidebar 2. Scroll down to see more unread mentions or use the navigation widget 3. Mark comments you don't want to see anymore as 'Read'
Mark comments as read
Comments are left as unread by default, viewing them will not automatically mark them as read.
This makes it easy to return to them later if you're not ready to deal with them at that time.
1. In the sidebar, click 'Comments' to enter unread view mode 2. Scroll down to see unread comments or use the navigation widget 3. Click 'Mark read' on the comment
View drafts
Comments are not shared until you publish them. Until then, they're automatically saved in the sidebar in a section called 'Drafts'.
This section will only be visible if you have any drafts.
1. Open the sidebar if it's closed 2. Click on 'Drafts' 3. Scroll down to see more drafts
Mention someone
You can also mention anyone outside of a comment by simply typing @ and then their username. They will receive a notification just like when you mention them in a comment.
This is useful for getting someone's attention or assigning tasks to them without starting a discussion.
1. Find an item where you want to mention someone 2. Type @ to bring up the tags widget 3. Select or type out the user you want to mention