SharePoint list comments

There are a couple of ways to attack this and I can't quite nail down what you are describing. If you could expand on your problem description I might be able to give some more direct advice.

That being said, you could consider creating a Multiple Line text column with append changes to existing text. Also you could apply this in another situation if you want to aggregate consolidated comments from one task to the next.

A specific example that I worked on involved a workflow that generated tasks at each stage, each subsequent task need to aggregate the Comments from all previous tasks. But again, provide some more details and we can get it worked out.

Some links that are an example of what I had to resolve in my situation. Maybe these will help give you some insight if not resolution.

//social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/f9d7e92a-96b0-44fd-96cb-8dd2c013f929/how-can-you-include-the-consolidated-comments-from-one-approval-process-into-the-assignment-email-of

//social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/b36f4021-b5a4-4ab0-b8c6-48460a41ac1e/sharepoint-designer-workflow-appending-the-multiline-text-box-values?forum=sharepointcustomizationprevious

Hi Brad,

Great stuff, thanks for the response. What we're doing is using the Task app in Sharepoint 2013 to create a task list for a project we're managing. The tasks will be added directly to this task list manually as they occur and the project team will update each task with comments as it's being worked on. The project manager would like the ability to produce some sort of report from this task list showing the details of each individual task including it's history, i.e. the comments.

We're running this site on Sharepoint Server 2013 internally. Currently the Comments field is a multiline field with the append changes option selected, so if I look at the task in Sharepoint I see the comment history. The issue is with the report requirement. In order to give this report to the PM, I'm trying to export the task list to an Excel spreadsheet but only the most recent comment is being included in this export.

I'll look at those links, but I'm wondering if there is a way to do the above using Excel? Or is there a better alternative?

In this case you won't be able to do it in Excel as I understand it. The "Appending" setting actual creates versions of the items in the list and by exporting, pulls the latest version of the list item. You might consider creating a hidden column in the list, and add a workflow to aggregate the new comment with the hidden column text on item change.

Cheers Brad, I think that's the route I'll have to go. I've read similar suggestions elsewhere for this scenario so I guess that's the best option. Appreciate the help!