Enabling Discussions

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When you install Microsoft® Office XP, the Discuss command is added to the Explorer Bar submenu of the View menu in Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 or later. This feature makes it possible for you to add threaded discussions to a Web page that appear when the page is viewed in Internet Explorer. Threaded discussions are comments added to the page or to an element on the page that can be seen and responded to by others who share the same discussion server.

To make it possible to add discussions, select the View menu on the Explorer Bar, and then click Discuss. In addition, a Web Discussions command is added to the Online Collaboration submenu of the Tools menu in Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® Excel, and Microsoft® PowerPoint®.

Click the Discuss command in Internet Explorer, or the Web Discussions command in any of the listed Office applications, to display the Discussions toolbar at the bottom of the application window. The version of the Discussions toolbar that is displayed in Internet Explorer 5 is shown in the following figure:

The Discussions Toolbar as It Is Displayed in Internet Explorer 5

You can use the commands on this toolbar to add a discussion server, specify what information will be displayed for a discussion, or subscribe to a particular Web page, Office document on a Web server, or folder on a Web server. Subscribing to an item makes it possible for you to specify when and how you will be notified of changes to the item.

See Also

Using Web Technologies with Office XP | Working with Office Web Discussions Client | The Office Web Discussions Client Object Model | Understanding the Global Object | Understanding Discussion Servers | Understanding Discussions | Understanding Subscriptions