# How to Use Comments with Copilot in SharePoint: List Items and HTML Files > Copilot in SharePoint reads comments on list items, HTML and Markdown files, so it can report on them and apply your review comments to a dashboard at once. - URL: https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/copilot-sharepoint-comments/ - Author: Daniel Anderson, Microsoft MVP (https://www.danielanderson.io/) - Published: 2026-08-12 - Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBjKtbk2mEA ## Key takeaways - Copilot in SharePoint can read comments on HTML files, Markdown files and Microsoft List items. - Because it reads list item comments, Copilot can build reports that show them, such as a dashboard with each item's comments as a timeline beside the commenter's profile photo. - You can leave review comments on a generated HTML file and ask Copilot to implement them all in one prompt, instead of describing each change in the chat. - List item comments are visible to anyone with access to the list, and they can be deleted but not edited. - A SharePoint admin can turn off list item comments for the whole tenant, so check they're on before you design a process around them. Copilot in SharePoint can read comments on HTML files, Markdown files and Microsoft List items. That gives you two things to build with: reports that pull in the comments people have left on list items, and a review loop where you comment on a generated file and ask Copilot to apply every comment at once. Comments on list items have been in Microsoft Lists for years, and they've mostly sat out of sight. You only see them by opening an item or hovering over its comment icon, so the reason a task is blocked rarely made it into a report. With Copilot reading them, they can sit on the dashboard next to the item they belong to. ## What do you need before you start? - **A Microsoft 365 Copilot licence** to use Copilot in SharePoint. - **A list with comments turned on.** Anyone with access to a list can see its comments unless an admin has disabled commenting. If the Comments icon is missing on your items, ask your admin. - **Some real comments.** My work tracker list had items with a progress of Blocked, and several of those items had comments from different people. - **Comments in the browser for HTML and Markdown files.** Inline comments on HTML and Markdown files are part of the web experience in SharePoint and OneDrive. ## How do you build a report from list item comments? 1. **Check the list.** Make sure the items you want to report on exist and have comments. Hover over the **Comments** icon on an item to see how many it has. 2. **Open Copilot in SharePoint on the list and describe the report.** Mine asked for a blocked items dashboard: filter to items where progress is Blocked, show each one as a card with the item, description, category and progress, read the comments on each item, add a pill to cards that have comments, and add a **View more details** button that slides a panel out from the right with the comments as a timeline and the profile photo of each person who commented. 3. **Decide how much design direction to give.** I gave Copilot none at all. The first pass captured six comments, showed the pills on the right cards, and the panel opened with the timeline and avatars. 4. **Check the comments against the list.** Open a couple of items with comments and confirm the timeline shows the same comments, in the same order, from the same people. ## How do you get Copilot to apply your review comments? 1. **Open the generated HTML file and comment on it.** Put each comment where the change belongs. Mine asked for the viewer's profile photo, name and a welcome message in the header; filters for category and assigned user above the cards; comment pills that stand out more than the default blue; and less rounded card corners, with some room for Copilot to be creative. 2. **Ask Copilot to work through them.** My prompt was "Can you just review the comments that I've made on this page, please, and just implement those?" 3. **Check each change against its comment.** Every one of mine came through: the welcome message and photo in the header, category and user filters, stronger comment pills and squarer cards. It works much like reviewing a Word document, with feedback tied to the content it refers to. If you'd rather the dashboard lived as a page in the site, [SharePoint HTML pages](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-html-pages/) explains how that works. When I wrote up [uploading an HTML page as a homepage](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/upload-html-page-sharepoint-homepage/), comments weren't supported on HTML pages in the Site Pages library, so do your comment review on the file before you publish it as a page. ## Four rules I'd set before reporting on comments Someone who left a frank note on a list item wrote it for the people working on that item, and a dashboard can put it in front of a much wider audience. I'd sort these out before the first report goes out. 1. **Save the report where the list's audience can open it, and nowhere wider.** Copilot builds the report with your permissions, and once it's a file it goes wherever the library or share link takes it. Set a save rule in the site's SHAREPOINT.md, the way I did for dashboards in [building a live dashboard from a Microsoft List](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/copilot-sharepoint-live-dashboard-microsoft-list/). 2. **Tell the team their comments will show up in reports.** List item comments can be deleted but not edited, and in my dashboard the timeline showed the author's profile photo next to every one, while the header showed the viewer's own photo and name. People should know that before the dashboard lands on a shared page. 3. **Keep the facts in columns.** Comments are good for the story behind an item: why it's blocked, who's waiting on what. If you need to filter or count on something, such as the reason an item is blocked, give it a column so it doesn't depend on Copilot reading free text the same way every time. 4. **Clear review comments once they're done.** I left mine on the file in the demo. On a file you'll keep iterating on, I'd delete or resolve the ones Copilot has applied, so the next "review the comments" prompt only picks up new feedback. ## What to watch for - **Guests can read list comments.** Anonymous and guest users can view list item comments but can't add or delete them, so check who has access to a list before its comments become report content. - **Mentioning someone doesn't give them access.** If you @mention someone in a list comment who can't edit the item, SharePoint asks whether to share it with them before it sends the notification. ## Frequently asked questions **Does Copilot change parts of the HTML file I didn't comment on?** It shouldn't. Feedback stays tied to the content it refers to, and the parts you didn't mention are kept as they were. Microsoft's own example prompt is "Fix the issues in the comments and show me the updated version." Every comment in my demo came through, but compare the file before and after anyway. **Can I edit a comment on a list item?** No. Editing list item comments isn't available. You can delete a comment from the Comments pane and post a new one. **How does an admin turn off comments on list items?** Tenant-wide, with the SharePoint Online PowerShell command `Set-SPOTenant -CommentsOnListItemsDisabled $true`. Turning comments off removes the data a report like this one depends on, so check the setting before you build. **Does @mentioning someone in a list comment notify them?** Yes. Type @ and their name in the Comments box, and they get an email with a link to the comment. Repeated mentions are grouped into fewer emails.