As a self-organizing team, you need to constantly communicate and negotiate in projects. In SwiftKanban, every card or a work-item has its own space for communicating. So when a team comes across a blocker, or needs to collaborate on a particular work, communication happens in the context of work.
Any comments that you add while using the flags such as Issue, Risk, Block is shown with the prefix of flag type. The prefix helps you differentiate between the normal comments and the flag’s comment.
Example: Issue: <Comment>
To effectively collaborate on cards, you can:
- Have a threaded discussion on a card where you can start a new comment thread or contribute to a discussion.
- Track a discussion anytime, related to a work item, from the board or the backlog.
You can enter your comments as long as 12000 characters. As you type, the remaining characters are shown below the text box. Click Save. A comment can be cancelled while entering but once saved, comments can be edited but not deleted.
In this topic, learn how to:
Add/Reply to Comments in the Item View
Add/Reply to Comments from the Board
Add Comments to Multiple Cards using Batch Update
Edit Your Comments
Track and Add Comments in Exported Cards
Mention Your Team-mates in Comments
Note that you can set the option to receive notifications so that you can get notified when a team member has posted a comment on a card assigned to you or replied to a comment that you posted on any card.
Adding/Replying to Comments in the Item View
To add a comment to a card, open the card, and click the Comments section.
Enter your comment and click Save. The comment is displayed with your name and the date and time stamp and in the sequence – from latest to earlier date.
To reply to a comment, click the Reply button for a comment.
Click the 
icon to view the reply. On adding more replies to the same comment, the icon will change the number next to it.
To start a new thread, enter the comment and click Save. The threaded comments are displayed in a structured manner.
Adding/Replying To Comments from the Board
Tips: We have an exciting in-app Learning Enabler, called Challenges that would help you learn and add a comment to the card interactively. Please navigate to Help & Support > Challenges from the top-level menu and try out the Challenges.
To add a comment to a card from the Kanban Board, navigate to your Kanban board. Mouse over on the card and click the Comments icon on the required card. You can even click the card title and then click the Comments section.
Note: If the Comments icon is disabled. It can be enabled through the Card Designer at Admin or Board level.
In the Comments window enter your comment and click the Save button. The comment is displayed with your name and the date and time stamp and in the sequence – from latest to earlier date.
To reply to a comment, click the Reply button for a comment.
Click the icon to view the reply. On adding more replies to the same comment, the icon will change the number next to it.
The latest comments added to the card will be shown when you hover over the card while on the board, displaying the member who commented and the date and time when commented.
Adding Comments to Multiple Cards using Batch Update
You can simultaneously add the same comments to the multiple cards using the Batch Update feature.
To know how to use the Batch Update to add comments, see the following information:
1. Right-click on the Kanban Board and select Batch Update from the menu list.
2. Click the multiple cards to select them for the batch update.
Note: Alternatively, you can perform the above step by pressing the Ctrl key and selecting cards. Once selected, right-click on the board and select Batch Update. The selected cards have orange color at their top-right corner.
3. In the footer menu, select Add Comment option and enter the texts in the Comment field.
4. Click Save. The texts will be added to the Comments tab of all the selected cards.
Note: You can add comments maximum of up to 50 cards simultaneously.
Editing Your Comments
You can edit the comments you added earlier for any card to make any required corrections. The edited comment is shown with the new timestamp when the comment was edited.
Besides, the comments you added for collaborating, you can also:
- Edit the comment that you have added in the Add Comments / WIP Limit violation reason window when you pull a card to the next column violating the WIP limit. The comment has to be entered when the board policy is set accordingly.
- Edit the comment that you entered when blocking and unblocking a card.
To edit the comment:
- On the Kanban board, hover on the card and click the Comments icon. In the comments window, click the edit icon for the required comment. Make the changes and click Save.
- Similarly, in the Card Detail view, go to the Comments section, and click the Edit icon for the required comment, edit, and click Save.
Track and Add Comments in Exported Cards
When you export cards to your system to view and edit locally, the comments are also exported.
In the exported file, you can:
- View the Comments Thread
- Add Comments
View Comments
To view the comments for a card, go to the Comments column. The comment is in the following format
‘Sr. No : Date :Timestamp : Login Id of the user who commented :Comment’.
For eg. 1. 2012-02-03 14:41:21:0: [email protected]: Resolved issue
The comments are in the descending order of the date the comment was added or replied to.
Below is an example of a threaded discussion as viewed in the exported Excel file. New comments added will also be updated for the card. You can see the new comment in the Detail view and from the board.
Add Comments
To add a comment for a card, go to the New Comment column for the card in the exported Excel sheet or the CSV file depending on which format you chose to download.
Enter the text in the cell/after the comma following the Comments column for the required card. Save and import the file. For details on exporting and importing a file, see the Exporting and Importing Cards page.
Mentioning your Team-mates in Comments
‘Mention’ your team-mates in a comment, whenever you want to share, discuss, or want them to take an action. Keeping team-mates connected, enhances collaboration in a much better way.
To reference a team-mate in a comment, either from the Edit Card view or the Detail view, just start with “@” symbol. As you type the name, a drop-down menu appears that allows you to select from your list of team-mates with matching text. (List is displayed based on the occurrence of text in the user names.) Click the name in the list, and then type your comment and save.
Add more team-mates separated with a comma, ‘and’, space, etc. in a similar way starting with @.
Team-mates you mention in your comments will be notified by mail and in the Notification widget, linking them to the card.