How to use WordPress Notes – New Feature for Collaboration

WordPress 6.9 update brought several new features and improvements. One of the new and exciting features added is Notes.

WordPress Notes is a handy feature that enhances collaboration within the block editor. This allows you to leave comments directly on individual blocks of posts and pages. These notes are only visible in the editor and not on the frontend, ensuring privacy and organization. You can already imagine how beneficial this feature can be as it enhances collaboration and review.

So how does this Notes feature work, and how can you use it? In this post, we’re going to talk about the WordPress Notes feature and how you can use it on your own WordPress website. So let’s get started!

WordPress Notes introduction

WordPress Notes is a new feature to enhance its collaboration and review process. It allows you and your team to leave comments on the blocks of blog posts and pages. As a result, you can collaborate with your team and also receive feedback more efficiently. These comments are only visible in the WordPress block editor and not on the frontend.

The block editor notes is not a new concept as there are other commenting plugins that allow you to leave contextual messages. But WordPress Notes offer a native, block-level collaboration by enabling contextual threaded feedback. This will streamline the content creation and review process for teams.

How Notes work in WordPress

Now let’s understand how Notes work in WordPress. Adding notes to individual blocks is easy. Say we want to comment on a particular text block of a blog post- we simply select that text, and click the “Add note” option and then add our comment. The note will attach to that particular block and will appear on the right side of the screen. Here, take a look at the screenshot below:

This is a threaded conversation between two users on a particular block of a post. Other members can also comment and keep the communication going. With this strategy, team members can now collaborate and work on their WordPress website with ease. This enables WordPress collaborative editing.

After a note has been added, a new option appears on the top right corner of the screen (just beside the Publish/Save button). Users can click this button to open up the Notes section and add in their own comments.

Admins and Editors can view and add notes on all posts and pages of any user. On the other hand, Authors and Contributors can view and create notes only on their own posts. Subscribers however, cannot view or add notes.

How to add Notes in WordPress (step-by-step)

Now that we know what WordPress Notes is, let’s learn how to use Notes in WordPress. However, before we start, ensure that you have the following:

• WordPress version 6.9 or later
• Gutenberg block editor
• Admin or Editor user role (Author and Contributor roles can access only the posts they own)

The Notes feature is available only for the Gutenberg block editor; it doesn’t support the classic editor. Also it is theme-independent so it should work on most themes. Now with that being said, let’s start our step-by-step guide on how to add Notes in WordPress.

Step 1: Select a block

The first thing that we need to do is to select a block. So select a block (e.g paragraph, heading, image, etc.).

Step 2: Click “Add note”

As soon as you select a block, a toolbar on top of it should appear. Click Options (3 vertical dots) located at the end of the tool bar. Then click the “Add note” option.

Step 3: Add your note

After you click the “Add note” button, a small window will pop up on the right side of the screen. Now you can add your note and once you do, click the “Add note” button to create a note for that block.

In the following image, you can see what it looks like in the block editor after adding notes.

If you select a particular block that has notes attached to it, the notes will be highlighted and you’ll be able to add more notes to it provided that you have the admin or editor user role. Author and Contributor user roles can also view and add notes on their own posts and pages.

We can also add notes to blocks in pages too. The process is the same. We simply select a block, click the options from the toolbar and hit the “Add note” option. Then we can add in our note. In the following image, you can see what the WordPress Notes look like on a page.

How to edit, delete, and resolve notes

It is also possible to edit and delete notes. To edit or delete a note, we can simply click the option on the top right corner of a note popup box. Then choose edit or delete to take the appropriate action.

Administrators and Editor user-roles have full access to notes on all posts. They can add, reply to, edit, and delete notes for any post or page within the editor. However, Authors and Contributors can only manage notes on posts they own or have authored. They can edit and delete their own notes and replies associated with those posts.

We can also mark a note as resolved. So if a user addresses an issue, and if the issue is resolved, what then? That is where the resolve feature comes in. So the user who left the comment in the first place or the Editor responsible for addressing the issue can mark the note as resolved. As a result, the conversation will close and no more notes can be added to that particular thread.

👉 Also Learn: How to Redirect URL in WordPress

Conclusion

WordPress 6.9 update brought several amazing new features to the platform. Notes is just one of those amazing and impactful features that came along with this major release. This will definitely improve the collaborative workflow of WordPress users. Although in the past, if we wanted to utilize this notes or commenting feature, we had to use third-party plugins. But with this update, we get a native solution to this matter.

So what are your thoughts on WordPress Notes? Do you think this will be beneficial for you and your team? Let us know in the comments.