Comments

A comment is a note pinned to part of a document: a few words, a table, a picture or a block. It sits in the margin beside what it's about, other people can reply to it, and it never shows in a PDF or on an exported page.

Leaving a comment

Select the words you want to talk about. The bar under the text you're editing changes to show what you can do with them: click Comment there, or press Option, Command and M together (Ctrl, Alt and M on Windows). Right-clicking the selection offers Comment too. A box opens in the margin, level with the words. Type what you want to say and press Enter, or just click somewhere else: what you typed is saved either way, as it is when you click away from text you're editing. Shift and Enter together start a new line, and Escape or Cancel throws the comment away.

Your comments and replies are signed with your name. Plicine doesn't ask for it: it uses the name your computer already knows you by. To sign with a different one, set Your name in Settings.

To comment on a whole paragraph, table or picture rather than some of its words, click into it and choose Comment in the bar without selecting anything. A block has Comment among the buttons that appear above it, and at the top of its form. Words inside a block, such as a callout's text or a column, take a comment the same way: click into them, select the words and click Comment in the bar, or click Comment with nothing selected for the whole block. On the pages, where a block has no buttons above it, that's the way to comment on it. A bar beside the element marks a comment on the whole of it.

The words you commented on are tinted on the page, so anyone reading can see what the note is about.

Replying and resolving

While you're editing, put the caret in words that have a comment, or anywhere in a paragraph that has one on the whole of it, and the bar under the text offers Open comment. It opens that comment with the reply box ready. When more than one applies, the button counts them and each click opens the next.

Every comment says at its top what it's on: the words it quotes, or Whole paragraph, Whole table and so on. Point at a comment, or open it, and the page shows the same thing: its words turn a stronger amber with a line under them while everyone else's fade, or, for a comment on a whole element, the element is washed in amber and the bar beside it thickens. So when a paragraph has a comment of its own and another on a few of its words, you can tell which one you're reading.

Click a comment to open it. Type in Reply and press Enter, or click away, to answer, and the replies build up under the first note with each person's name and the time.

When a comment has been dealt with, open it and click Resolve. That removes it from the document. Undo brings it back.

When the window is narrow

Comments work the same in the infinite view and on the pages. With room beside the page, every comment is open in the margin. In a narrower window they fold to small amber marks at the edge of the page, one for each comment. Click a mark to read it and reply.

Point at commented words, or at an element with a comment on the whole of it, and that comment's thread or mark lights up. It does the same while you're editing the text. Put the caret in commented words and their mark opens out into a line of the comment; click it to read the rest.

When the words change

The words stay tinted while you edit the paragraph they're in, and the comment stays beside it. If you edit the words a comment is on, the comment follows them. If the document is changed somewhere else and the words can't be found any more, the comment stays on the paragraph and says which words it was about, so nothing is lost.

Comments and an AI agent

An agent working in the vault reads comments too, and checks a document for them before it changes anything. A comment that asks for something specific, such as rewording a sentence or adding a row, is a job for it: it makes the change and resolves the comment, and tells you what it resolved. A comment that asks a question gets a reply and stays on the page for you. The agent replies under its own name, such as Claude or Gemini, so its answers are easy to tell from people's.

While a document has comments where you were the last to write, the agent bar at the bottom offers to answer them: Answer 3 comments, or Answer the comment when there's one. A thread someone else, or the agent, wrote in last isn't counted. Press it and the agent goes through them all in one go, the same way as above. It's also above the message box when the agent is open, and under /. It isn't offered while the agent is busy with something else. Working with an AI agent explains how to start one.

For technical readers: a comment is kept in the document's own file, as a hidden note above the paragraph, so it travels with the file and other markdown apps don't show it. Editing the source has the format.