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A discussion board is a place to share information and discuss topics with other people. When you create a discussion topic or reply to an existing discussion, you can format your text, insert a hyperlink or table, and link to a picture on the Web.

You can also subscribe to the discussion to see a summary of the content that has changed or to receive alerts to find out when someone has added or changed an item.

 Note    Depending on how the discussion board was set up, you may need to be a member of the site that contains the discussion board, or the owner may have assigned other types of permission. For more information, see your site owner.

Create a new discussion topic

Reply to a discussion

Participate in a discussion by using e-mail

Edit your own discussion topic

Edit your reply to a discussion

Change how you view a discussion

Create a new discussion topic

1. If your discussion board is not already open, click its title on the Quick Launch.

   If the name of your discussion board does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your discussion board.

2. On the New menu, click Discussion.
3. Type the text that you want for the subject and body of the message, and apply any formatting that you want.
4. Click OK.

Reply to a discussion

1. If the discussion board is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.

   If the name of your discussion board does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your discussion board.

2. Click the discussion topic that you want to reply to.
3. In the bar above the message that you want to reply to, click Reply.
4. Type the text of the reply, and then apply any formatting that you want.
5. Click OK.

Participate in a discussion by using e-mail

If your discussion board is set up to receive e-mail, you can add discussion topics by sending e-mail. You create a message as you normally do and then include the name of the discussion board in the To or Cc box of the e-mail message. The message then creates a new discussion topic on the discussion board.

If you belong to a SharePoint group (SharePoint group: A group of users that can be created on a SharePoint site to manage permissions to the site and to provide an e-mail distribution list for site users. A group can be used by many sites in one site collection.) that includes the discussion board in its e-mail distribution list, e-mail messages that you send to the group are automatically added to the discussion board. If you reply to an e-mail discussion message and include the group in the To or Cc box, your e-mail reply also becomes a reply in the discussion.

To use e-mail to participate in a discussion, first you need to obtain the address of the discussion board or SharePoint group. Depending on your situation, the e-mail address of your discussion board or group may appear in the address book of your e-mail application. If it does not appear there, you can add it to your personal contacts list of your e-mail application after you obtain it, so that you can easily find it later.

1. In your e-mail application, prepare the item that you want to add to the discussion board by doing one of the following:
   • To create a new discussion topic, create a new e-mail message.
   • To reply to an existing discussion topic by using e-mail, open the original e-mail message, and then click Reply.
2. In the To or Cc box, add the address of the discussion board or SharePoint group. If you are responding to an existing e-mail message, the address of the discussion board or SharePoint group appears if you reply to all recipients.
3. Add the content that you want to the message.
4. Send the message. In most e-mail applications, you click Send to send the message.

 Notes 

• To open an attachment to a discussion topic or reply, open the discussion, click View Properties in the bar above the discussion item, and then click the name of the attachment next to Attachments. Depending on how your discussion board is set up, e-mail attachments may not be saved in the discussion board on the site. For more information, see your site owner or administrator.
• If someone sends e-mail to a discussion board that contains the same subject line as an existing discussion, the message is not automatically stored as a reply to the discussion on the site, unless the message is also a reply to an existing e-mail discussion. This way, messages that belong to different conversations aren't accidentally added to the same discussion, even if they happen to have a common subject line, such as "contracts."

Edit your own discussion topic

Use the following procedure to edit the original topic that you posted in a discussion. You may not have permission to edit a topic that was created by someone else.

1. Do one of the following:
   • If the discussion board is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.

     If the name of your discussion board does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your discussion board.

   • If you are already viewing the discussion board and have opened the topic that you want to edit, do the following instead:

     1. Click View Properties at the upper right of your topic, and then click Edit Item.
     2. Skip to step 3.

2. In the Subject column, point to the discussion topic that you want to edit, click the arrow on the menu that appears, and then click Edit Item.
3. Make the changes that you want, and then click OK.

Edit your reply to a discussion

Use the following procedure to edit a reply that you made to an existing discussion.

1. Do one of the following:
   • If the discussion board is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.

     If the name of your discussion board does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your discussion board.

   • If you are already viewing the discussion and your reply, skip to step 3.
2. In the Subject column, click the discussion that contains the reply that you want to edit.
3. Locate your reply, and then click View Properties at the upper right of your reply.
4. Click Edit Item.
5. Make the changes that you want, and then click OK.

Change how you view a discussion

It is easy to sort and filter the discussions on the page, and you can create your own view. Do one or more of the following to change the way that you view discussions:

• To sort the discussions within a discussion board, click the heading above the column that you want to sort by. A down arrow appears next to the heading for descending order (such as the newest discussions first) and an up arrow appears for ascending order.
• To filter the discussions so that you see only the items that meet specific criteria, point to the column that you want to use, click the arrow that appears, and then click the item you want to filter by. For example, you can see only discussions that were updated today by selecting the current date in the Last Updated column.
• To change the view of the topics in a discussion board, click the name of the view next to the View menu in the upper-right corner of the discussion board, and then click Modify this View. Change any other settings that you want, and then click OK.
• To create your own view of a discussion board, click the name of the view next to the View menu in the upper-right corner of the discussion board, and then click Create View. Under Choose a view format, click the type of view you want to create. To always see the discussion with that view, if you have permission to modify lists, click Make this the default view. Change any other settings that you want, and then click OK.
• To change the way that you view individual discussions, you can open a discussion topic and then switch to another view, change the view, or create a new view by using the same procedures that you use to change the view of a discussion board. Two key options are Threaded, in which the replies are indented under each topic, and Flat, in which the topic and its replies are displayed at the same level, with additional data about the participant.