All users with discussion permissions can open a document in Microsoft Internet Explorer and use the Web Discussions toolbar in Internet Explorer. Users of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint can also use the Web Discussions toolbar in those applications. Users of all other Office applications must use Internet Explorer.

 Note   The browser-based Web Discussions toolbar is available only in Internet Explorer 4.0 and later.

You can discuss the whole document, using general discussions (general discussion: Discussion comments that are associated with a whole document, rather than any particular part of the document. General discussions are displayed in the discussion pane.), or insert comments in a particular part of a document, using inline discussions (inline discussion: Discussion comments that are associated with a particular paragraph, image or table. In Web browsers, inline discussions are displayed in the body of the document; in a Microsoft Word document, they are displayed in the discussion).

 Note   For documents that you view in a browser, inline discussions are available only in HTML (HTML: The standard markup language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML uses tags to indicate how Web browsers should display page elements such as text and graphics and how to respond to user actions.)-formatted files. For documents that you open in an Office application, inline discussions are available only in Microsoft Word.

You can filter discussions — for example, view comments that are from a particular person or posted on a particular date. You can also show or hide discussion information so that you can focus only on the information you want to see:

• Show and hide individual discussion comments (discussion comment: A remark or topic of discussion that is associated with a Web page or Microsoft Office file and is stored on a discussion server.) or entire discussions.
• Show and hide the Discussion pane.
• Drag the top border of the Discussion pane to make it larger or smaller.
• Close a discussion once the issues have been resolved. The discussion is not deleted; you can choose to view closed discussions, and you can reopen a closed discussion.
• Show or hide the subject, user name, or other header information.

   Note   Discussion header information includes two names for each participant: Display name and User name. Display name is the name that participants set in an Office application; User name is the logon name that a system administrator sets.

When you add discussion comments (discussion comment: A remark or topic of discussion that is associated with a Web page or Microsoft Office file and is stored on a discussion server.) to a document, your text is stored in a database on a discussion server. The document you are discussing may or may not be located on the same computer as the discussion server where your comments are stored — in fact, the document you are discussing can be anywhere on your LAN or the Internet.

If the document you are discussing is located on a discussion server, your discussion comments are automatically stored on that server. However, you can override this behavior by specifying a particular server to use for all your discussions. You may need to switch to a different discussion server to view discussions that someone else creates.