Add a Comment to Field items on a List

Question

Basically I am attempting to replicate Excel's ability to add a comment to an item on a list. (The little popup boxes that can be added to Excel cells that come up with a mouse hover or click) I would also be okay with a field having small amount (or just different fillable box) of data on view and expanding into more data with click or hover. Ultimately I am attempting to clean up the appearance of a list with large swaths of text in some of the fields.

Note: "Tags & Notes" is no longer supported, and I get the impression that that was more for the list not individual items.

I'm okay with designer, HTML, CSS, or a javascript solution. And open to any other suggestions.

Thanks, Robin

Answer 1

Use a standard Description column and apply CSR to make it look and behave anyway you want.

CSS can clean the View

/* ListView - make Description fields a maximum width and height, and show full text on mouseover*/
/*.ms-itmhover is the TR row*/
.ms-vb2  .ms-rtestate-field{
    max-width:40em;
    max-height:2em;
    overflow:hidden;
}
.ms-vb2  .ms-rtestate-field:hover{
    max-height:none;
    background-color:whitesmoke;
}

If you go fancy you use the HTML5 contentEditable attribute, attach a onkeyup event and use JSOM or REST to immediatly update the ListItem (Description)

iCSS

Answer 2

One possible solution:

Create a Notes column, then create a list form, named something like "CustomEdit.aspx" that has nothing in it but the Notes field (hide all the other columns in the list), and use another column, named something like EditNotes to have the hyperlink to the custom edit form. Something like:

="<a href='http://sharepoint/sites/sitecoll/lists/YOURLIST/CustomEdit.aspx?ID="&[ID]&"'>Edit Note</a>"

Or you can have a workflow edit that column for you on New Item trigger.

Set EditNotes to http://sharepoint/sites/sitecoll/lists/YOURLIST/CustomEdit.aspx?ID=[%CurrentItem:ID%]