Everything you should know about suggestions in Contractbook

This article describes how to use suggestions and how to track changes across your documents. It contains the following topics:

1. Suggestions document usage
2. Creating a new suggestion
3. Tagging others in suggestions
4. Reviewing all added suggestions
5. Public suggestions visibility rules
6. Private suggestions visibility rules
7. Commenting on suggestions
8. Approving and rejecting suggestions
9. Approved and rejected suggestions visibility
10. Checking the status of suggestions
11. Approved suggestions in the document history
12. Deleting created suggestions
13. Editing made suggestions
14. Resolving made suggestions
15. Deleting document content with suggestions
16. Suggesting edits for data fields
17. Notifying others about suggestions
18. Signing a draft with unresolved suggestions

The recipients of your contract drafts can now add actionable suggestions directly to the document (also known as redlining).

No more switching between tools to discuss changes and amend your drafts. You will have everything in one place for complete redlining functionality.

If you are familiar with Microsoft Word track changes-functionality, you will feel right at home.

Where can I use suggestions?

Suggestions are available in drafts in Contractbook.

• You can add suggestions to any text within a paragraph
• Suggesting changes currently only supports singular numbers and bullet points in lists
  • You can select a single point in the list and add suggestions to it 
  • If you select multiple points, only adding a comment will be possible:

How can I create a new suggestion?

• Open the draft contract:
  • You can add a new suggestion in Create and Preview modes of the draft.
  • Turn the Full-text editing mode off in Create mode to access suggestions.
• Highlight (or double-click for single words) the text you would like to amend and click "Suggest change":

• Type in your suggested amendment or leave it empty if you suggest complete deletion.
• Choose whether your suggestion should be private or public from the dropdown list.
• Click the blue button to submit your suggestion.
• The draft owner or manager will be notified that a new suggestion has been submitted.

Can I tag collaborators in my suggestions?

You can! Mention your draft collaborators in the text field, and they will receive a notification via email. 

For collaborators who do not already have access to the draft, you will be prompted to share the draft with them.

Where can I find all created suggestions in a draft?

In the comments and suggestions section of the documents sidebar, you will find a list of all created suggestions and their details.

• All suggestions can be filtered based on their status: active and resolved
• You will also be able to see the type of suggestion, whether private or public if you have the necessary permissions

Who can make or see public suggestions in drafts? 

• Unlike private suggestions, public suggestions are visible to anyone who has access to the draft.
• Regardless of the type of access they have, they can see existing public suggestions and create new public suggestions.
• Document owners and anyone with full access can differentiate public suggestions from private suggestions as they do not contain status in the sidebar:

• Once the draft is sent for signatures, its recipients will not be able to see any public suggestions:

Who can make or see private suggestions in drafts?

Creating new and viewing existing private suggestions is only available to collaborators who have been granted access to private comments and suggestions. This access can be enabled when sharing a draft and assigning individual permissions.

• The toggle labeled "Can access private comments and private suggestions" must be on.  

 

• The suggestions status tooltip will remind you of the visibility of private suggestions.

Can I comment on an existing suggestion?

Absolutely! Once a suggestion is created, you can add comments using the text field and mention other collaborators with access to the draft:

Who can approve or reject a suggestion?

Only collaborators with the following permissions can approve or reject a suggestion: 

• Owner of the draft
• Manager of the draft (Collaborators with full access permission)
• Editor of the draft (Collaborators with edit permission)

Who can see approved or rejected suggestions? 

• An approved or rejected private suggestion is visible to collaborators with "access to private comments & suggestions":

• An approved or rejected public suggestion is visible to anyone who has access to the draft, regardless of the type of access they have.

How can I see if a suggestion was approved or rejected?

You can view if a suggestion was approved or rejected by filtering all resolved suggestions in the comments and suggestions sidebar and then expanding the relevant suggestion:

How does an accepted suggestion appear in the document's version history? 

• An accepted suggestion looks like any other type of edit when being reviewed in the document's version history
• It will be listed as edited by the person who approved it, not the creator of the suggestion:

How do I pull a suggestion back?

• You can only delete a suggestion before it is approved or rejected. This means that the suggestion must still be active:

• Once a suggestion is approved or rejected, it will no longer be possible to delete it:

Can I edit a suggestion?

• If you need to make changes to a suggestion after creating it, you need to delete it first and then add a new suggestion by highlighting the same text in the body of the draft:

• It is not possible to edit resolved suggestions.

How can I resolve a suggestion?

Select the suggestion from the sidebar and click the checkmark in the pop-up window to accept it: 

The suggestion will be marked as accepted and moved to the resolved section in the sidebar:

The amendments from the suggestion will be automatically applied to the body of the draft, and the details will only be visible in the comments & suggestions sidebar.

What happens if text, including a suggestion, is deleted from the body of the draft?

We do not recommend editing the contents of the draft body before all available suggestions are resolved first.

• However, if this happens and anyone with editing permissions deletes content containing a suggestion, it will remain available in the document as a reference without being linked to specific text in the body of the draft:

• You can still access these suggestions from the comments and suggestions sidebar, and the only action you can perform is to delete or reject them.

Can recipients suggest edits for data fields?

Yes, new suggestions can also be made on the text that contains data fields.

 ❗️However, please note that when a suggestion is accepted, it will replace any existing (dynamic) data fields in the selection with the suggested (static) text:

Who is notified of the suggestions activity?

• The owner (creator) of the draft, plus any collaborators with full access and editing permissions, will be notified once a suggestion is created.
• Collaborators who created a suggestion, have commented on a suggestion, or were tagged in a suggestion will receive a notification on new comments, approvals, and rejections:

• It is important to make sure your in-app and email notifications are enabled.

Is it possible to receive bulk email notifications?

Currently, we do not support bulk email notifications. Each suggestion is followed by an individual notification sent to the relevant parties.

Can I sign a draft with unresolved suggestions?

It is not possible to sign a draft with active suggestions.

• Active suggestions need to be resolved to proceed with signing the draft:

• When the document owner or any collaborator with full access rights attempts to send a draft with active suggestions for signature, they will be offered to reject all of them in bulk.
• When multiple suggestions in a draft are rejected, there will not be a corresponding email notification for the bulk rejected suggestions.
• Note: If the text linked to an active suggestion in the document's body were deleted, you would still need to reject the suggestion to sign or send the draft for signatures.

If you still need additional information or assistance, reach out to us at any time by contacting our Support Team.