---
title: How to add files and comments to a task
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/tasks/files-and-comments
description: Attach files to a task, talk about it in one activity feed, and read back what happened and when.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to add files and comments to a task



Everything said about a task and every file belonging to it lives on the task itself, in one
merged feed. This page covers both, from the panel described in
<Ref to="tasks/edit-a-task" />.

## How do you attach a file? [#how-do-you-attach-a-file]

**Attach files** on the task panel, or the file picker in the New task dialog while you are
creating one. Files upload as soon as you pick them and show a live progress state.

Files can be up to 25 MB each. Images preview inline on the task, and everything else
downloads when clicked.

You can remove any attachment, including one somebody else added. That is deliberate: the
file belongs to the task rather than to the person who happened to drop it there.

Attaching is checked against the task's department, so you attach files where you can edit.

The iPhone app does all of this too, which is usually where photos come from.

## Why did a file refuse to attach? [#why-did-a-file-refuse-to-attach]

Two reasons come up. An empty file is rejected with a message saying it looks empty, which is
almost always a failed export rather than a Tideswell problem.

The other is a repeating task. A schedule produces many tasks and a file belongs to one of
them, so attachments go on an individual occurrence rather than on the series. See
<Ref to="tasks/make-a-task-repeat" />.

## How do you comment? [#how-do-you-comment]

Write in the composer at the foot of the panel and submit with **Cmd+Enter** or
**Ctrl+Enter*&#x2A;. Type &#x2A;*@** to mention a teammate, which puts the comment in their Inbox.

Edit your own comment with the pencil, or remove it with the bin, which asks first.

You can always edit and delete your own comments. Removing somebody else's is a lead's job in
most workspaces.

## What is the activity feed? [#what-is-the-activity-feed]

One ordered list holding both the comments and what actually happened: created, assigned,
status moved, completed, reopened, approvals. There is no separate comments tab, because
reading the two apart tells you less than reading them together.

**Show earlier** at the top of the feed loads older entries a page at a time.

The feed answers "what happened to this task". For a full field-by-field audit of a record,
including who changed which value, use the history on a record, covered in
<Ref to="records/comments-and-history" />.

## When should the conversation live in chat instead? [#when-should-the-conversation-live-in-chat-instead]

When it is a conversation rather than a note on the work.

A comment on a task is read by whoever opens the task, usually later. A message in a chat
channel is read now, by whoever is in that channel.

The useful habit is to talk in chat and then turn the outcome into work, which keeps a link
back to the conversation. <Ref to="tasks/create-a-task" /> covers that.

If what you are writing is longer than a paragraph or two and other people will need to find
it again, it is a document. See <Ref to="documents" />.