Commenting template guidelines
In this article
This article is relevant for:
Voter
Please note
- Committee Manager (CM), Twinned Committee Manager (Twinned CM), Committee Manager Support Team (CM Support Team) roles refer to technical committees and their sub-committees only.
- Secretary, Twinned Secretary, Secretary/Convenor Support Team roles refer to Working Groups (WG), Policy committees, and Governance committees.
The ISO Commenting Template is used by voters and commenters during the balloting process to submit their comments and observations to Committee managers of ISO committees, PC Secretaries, and Convenors and Secretaries of working groups.
An automatic verification of comment files is performed when they are uploaded to the ballots. Users having submitted a comment file containing unsupported content will be notified to correct it and to resubmit their comment file before ballot closure (see notification example at the end of this document).
Voters and commenters must always use the latest version of the commenting template for the submission of their comments. The commenting template should not be modified in any way (e.g. by deleting/adding columns, merging cells, etc.).
Related articles
Please refer to Cast vote article for more information on how to download the latest version of the ISO Commenting template (see link to the article at the bottom of this page)
Best practices
- Always use the latest version of the commenting template. Please refer to the Download Commenting template article.
- Be sure to use a lowercase file extension of your comment file (in .doc or .docx)
- Enter only 1 comment per line
- Complete at least all mandatory fields (MB, Clause, Type of comment, Comment) for each comment line
- Use the Tab key to move from one cell to another
- Copy tables, bigger pictures, and other elements not fitting in cells into a separate word file, save it on the desktop, and then insert the file, by drag & drop, into the comment cell.
- Avoid adding an extra Tab character at the end of the document (after the table)
Unsupported formatting
- Do not modify the layout of the template (e.g. add or remove columns)
- Do not split the comment table into several tables
- Do not change the width of individual cells
- Do not merge cells (vertically and horizontally). Instead, refer to another comment or duplicate the text
- Do not add text, images, etc. outside of the table (before or after)
- Do not insert a table into a cell (same comment as previous point). Instead, move them in a separate Word file and insert the file in the comment cell
- Do not insert a table into a cell (same comment as previous point)
- Do not use auto-numbering fields (“grey” fields). Instead, write plain text
- Do not password protect or write protect your document
The commenting template in details
Template body
The ISO Commenting template body is where you enter your comments and observations. The fields in the table below marked with a asterix (*) are mandatory and must be completed for each comment line in the template.
| Field | Description |
| MB/NC * | Identifies who submitted the comment:
Comments from ISO/CS are indicated by a double asterisk "**" |
| Line number | Indicate the line number to which your comment refers. Line numbering is rarely displayed in ISO documents and is therefore not used for the sorting of comments. |
| Clause/Subclause * | Indicate the clause/subclause to which your comment refers. For numerical clauses, enter only the clause number(s), without any additional wording. If the comment applies to more than one clause, then separate the clauses by line breaks (like below).
For non-numerical clauses, use:
|
| Paragraph/ Figure/ Table | Indicate the paragraph (inside a clause), figure or table to which your comment refers. |
| Type of comment * | Select the most relevant type of comment for your comment:
|
| Comment * | Enter your comment in this column and explain the reason for it. Insert complex objects (tables, figures, bigger images) as separate files either in this column or the Proposed change column. |
| Proposed change | Enter your proposed changes. |
| Observations of the secretariat | Leave this column empty. Used by the Secretariat to indicate the decision taken on each submitted comment. |
Template header
The template header contains the main information about the document and/or project to be commented.
Example of a comments file
Comments file validation
If the uploaded comment file contains unsupported formatted content, then the voter will receive a notification to correct its comments file and to re-upload it to the ballot before its closure.
Notification sent to users when the validation of the comments file has failed
