About discussions in Web pages

The Discussions feature is available only with Microsoft Office Server Extensions, a feature that is set up by your system administrator.

This topic provides reference information about:

Using threaded discussions for collaboration

More information

Using threaded discussions for collaboration

The Discussions feature allows you and other people to insert remarks into a Web page. The discussions are threaded -- that is, replies to a discussion remark are nested directly under it. You can have multiple discussions in progress simultaneously. You start a discussion from within your browser. (You can also work directly from within Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.) By using the Discussions toolbar, anyone reviewing your Web page can view and reply to any discussion. You can then review discussions in your browser or in an Office program and incorporate any changes to your Web page based on the feedback you receive.

Return to top

Browser requirements

You can use the Discussions feature in most browsers, although it works best when you use Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4 or later and have Microsoft Office 2000 installed. You can use the feature with earlier versions of Internet Explorer; you can also use the feature with other browsers, such as Netscape Navigator version 3.0 or later, although there are slight differences in the way the Discussions feature will look and work. If you use Internet Explorer 4 or later and you don't have Office 2000 installed, you must use the Office Server Extensions start page to access the Discussions feature. To use the Discussions feature in a browser other than Internet Explorer 4 or later, you need to go to the Office Server Extensions start page. See your system administrator for the Web address of the start page.

Return to top

Starting and viewing discussions

When you begin a discussion, a discussion pane appears with your remark or question in it, along with the subject of the discussion. By scrolling through the discussions in the discussion pane, you can view the subject, the name of each person who inserted each remark in the discussion, and the content of the discussion.

Return to top

Editing, deleting, and replying to discussions

You can edit or delete only the discussion remarks you've added to a Web page, unless your system administrator has set up edit and delete permissions to allow you to delete and edit all discussion remarks. You can reply to any discussion remark.

Return to top

Filtering discussions

You can filter discussions on a Web page so that you read the discussion remarks added by only a particular participant and/or within a certain timeframe. For example, you can choose to show only remarks inserted by John Smith within the last week.

Return to top

More information

Delete a discussion

Return to top

About receiving notification of changes to a file or folder on a Web server

The Subscription feature is available only with Microsoft Office Server Extensions, which is set up by your system administrator.

This topic provides reference information about:

More information

Subscribing to a file or folder

You can be notified by e-mail of any changes made to a Web site on a Web server running Office Server Extensions. You do this by subscribing to a file or folder. Subscribing enables you to be automatically notified on a scheduled basis if a file or folder is modified, deleted, or moved, or even if a new file is created in that folder. You can also be notified if a discussion remark is deleted from a file, or if a new discussion remark is added. You must have read access to subscribe to a file or folder.

Return to top

Receiving notification of changes to files at remote Web server locations

Discussions are stored separately from the file in a database on a Web server running Office Server Extensions. This allows you to insert discussion remarks in a file on any Web server. If you subscribe to a file that is not located on your Office Server Extensions server, you won't be notified of changes to the content of the file, but you will be notified if any discussion remarks associated with that file change.

Return to top

Unsubscribing to a file or folder

You can stop receiving notification of changes to a file or folder by clicking the hyperlink in one of the notification e-mail messages, or you can delete a subscription to a file or folder from the Office Server Extensions start page.

Return to top

More information

Stop notification of changes to Web pages

Return to top