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Using the Marking feature

You can turn a conversation into a real business decision or collaboration success story.

Collaboration and discussion are free-form in your community, but decisions and official versions should be marked clearly. The Marking feature allows you and others to mark items for Action, as a Success, Final, and so on. Visual badges for these states let others know which document is Final, which comment became the Decision, or who has Action items as a result of the discussion.

You and other users can mark the replies or comments of:

  • Blog posts
  • Discussions
  • Questions
  • Documents

In addition, users with edit permissions on top-level items can mark the items as Final, Official, Outdated, Success, or for Action.

Your community manager may limit this feature to specific users and configure which marking options are available in your community.

How Marking adds value​

Let's say the VP of sales has just published a discussion called "Possible Hotels for Sales Kickoff." In the post, she has included a list of hotels that are available, their amenities, and the pros and cons of each. She ends her post by @mentioning the Sales Kickoff group and inviting comments and opinions about the hotels. Over the next few days, over fifty comments are posted to the discussion.

Here's what happens:

  1. Two new hotels are suggested. Different thread participants mark those comments for Action (Actions > Mark for Action) and ask the commenters to provide the hotels' availability, amenities, and pros and cons. Those comments now have Action Item badges on them. You can click the badge to see any notes included with the action item.
  2. The receptionist replies that she has dealt with Hotel ABC and highly recommends it.
  3. The two new hotels that were suggested are now included in the list, and those actions have been resolved by their owners (Action Item > Resolve).
  4. Based on the receptionist's and others' positive comments about Hotel ABC, the VP of sales decides that it's the best hotel for the Sales Kickoff. She adds a final comment to the thread explaining her decision and then marks it as the Decision (Actions > Mark as Decision).
  5. Now, the VP marks the entire discussion as Final to let future readers know that the post has been discussed and decided on. At the top of the discussion, the Final badge is now displayed.
  • Who can mark and unmark? Different types of users have different permissions to mark and unmark items. The following tables list who can do what for comments, replies, and top-level items, as well as other rules of marking.
  • Searching for marked content Marks are ranked differently in search results and have varying visibility options. The following tables list the visibility and searching options of marks for comments, replies, and top-level items.
  • Marking comments and replies You can mark the comments or replies of discussions, documents, or blog posts in places where you have permission to comment or reply. After you mark an item, you see a badge on it. This helps others quickly see what has been decided on or a success, for example.
  • Marking options for comments and replies You can mark a comment or reply Helpful, Correct, Decision, Success, for Action, or Resolved. You may see all or only some of these marking options, depending on how your community manager has configured this feature.
  • Marking options for top-level items You can mark a top-level item (a blog post, discussion, or document) if you have edit permissions for it.
  • Marking top-level items You can mark a top-level item (a blog post, discussion, question, or document) if you have edit permissions for it.
  • Mark for Action or assign a task? You should understand the differences between Mark for Action and creating tasks and the best ways to use these features.
  • Mark as Decision or Correct Answer? Understand the differences between Decisions and Correct Answers and the best ways to use these features.
  • Reserving files and documents Marking an uploaded file or a document as Reserved indicates that someone is currently editing it, so other users shouldn't edit it until the Reserved badge is removed. It does not actually lock the file or document.
  • Marking as Reserved You can reserve a document or file to alert other users you're working on it. This doesn't lock the document, but it alerts other users that you are planning to update the item.
  • Managing your action items Understand how to resolve, add participants, and manage your Actions.
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