Org and Spec notes have different purposes. This article explains what to use them for and how they differ.
| Org notes | Spec notes | |
| Purpose of notes | To supply guidance to make better future decisions. Org notes enable you to record best practices and lessons learnt from earlier projects. The information is only visible to users within your organization and, once written, can be accessed on all new and existing projects and masters. | To record the decisions you have taken on that spec. Spec notes enable you to record project decisions directly in your specification as it is developed, e.g., the reason an article/ clause has been parked, a design preference or an essential health and safety requirement. |
| Who can create/ edit/ delete and see notes? | Org admins can create, edit, and delete org notes. This includes org notes from other org administrators. Org users can see org notes. Like masters, org notes are hidden from guests. | Anyone (including guests) with access to the spec can create and see spec notes*. * Guests can only see 'Shared note' spec notes, they cannot see 'Internal note' spec notes. Anyone can reply to an existing spec notes thread. Individuals can delete their own spec notes. Specification administrators can delete the spec notes from other users, but they cannot edit any notes other than their own. |
| Visibility | When org notes are entered against a content set item (an article/ clause/ section/ system), the platform shows the note everywhere else. This means every project or master, existing or future, will show the org note. | When spec notes are entered against an NBS item (article/ clause /section/ system), the will only present the note against that item in the context of that spec. So, if there is more than one type of the same article/ clause/ section/ system, Chorus only presents the spec note against the type it was entered against. |
| Copying | Org notes are automatically displayed against every instance of the article/ clause/ section/ system across all projects and masters, organization-wide. So, copy does not apply to org notes. Org notes are not copied as part of copying specs between organizations. Like masters, they are confined to the organization. | Spec notes are not copied when the article/ clause/ section/ system or whole spec is copied. They are designed to remain in the context of the NBS item (article/ clause/ section/ system) they were entered against. |
| Notes against NBS articles/ clauses/ sections/ systems | Supported. | Supported. |
| Notes against user-created items | Supported. Related: Org notes against user clauses | Supported. |
| Notes against individual NBS clause rows | Not supported. This is under consideration for a future release. | Supported. |
| Related support articles | Support articles for org notes | Support articles for spec notes |