Adding notes, mentions and attachments

Not everything on a request is for the requester. Internal notes are where your office talks to itself, and they are structurally separate from the correspondence rather than a setting you could get wrong.

How to add an internal note

1. Open the request and go to the Internal Notes tab.

2. Write your note in the box at the bottom. The toolbar gives you bold, lists, links and quotes.

3. To bring a colleague in, type @ and pick their name.

4. To attach a file, use the paperclip or drag it onto the box.

5. Click Add Note.

The tab is labeled Staff-only, never emailed or shown to the requester, and that is exactly what it does.

What belongs in a note

Anything you would not want read back to you by the person who filed the request. Why you routed it where you did, how large you expect the disclosure to be, a question for a colleague, the reasoning behind a judgment call.

That last one is worth the effort. A note explaining why you treated something a particular way is the difference between a defensible decision and a decision nobody can account for a year later.

Mentions

Typing @ notifies the person and puts the item under Where you're tagged on their dashboard.

Mention people in notes rather than in replies. A mention in a reply still reaches the requester, and a colleague's name is rarely something you meant to disclose.

Attachments, and where they go

A file attached to a note is internal. A file attached to a reply goes to the requester.

Neither is the same as adding a record to the request. Documents that form part of the response belong on Case/Media, where they pass through review and redaction before release. Attaching a responsive document to a note keeps it out of that process entirely, which is how a record gets missed.

Use notes for working material. Use Case/Media for the records themselves.