WordPress offers by default three types of comments:
- Regular comments (posted by website visitors)
- Trackbacks (notifications to legacy blog systems)
- Pingbacks (links to other blog posts)
All three regular WordPress comment types are visible on the front-end after being approved. Hence there is no way to post a comment that is only visible on the admin side of the website and thus only to other logged-in users with admin-side access.
The Internal Comments plugin aims to close that gap by registering a new comment type, the so-called internal comment. As opposed to any of the default comment types, internal comments can only be added to a post through the admin-side interface and are only visible from the post edit screen.
Users with admin side access can converse with one another using these internal comments. Typical use cases involve:
- Leaving track notes and/or reporting on progress
- Informing other users of certain decisions
- Writing down information from emails
Internal comments are basically a digital post-it note. It’s hard to explain what they do exactly because there is no single thing they’re good for. Anything that you would write on a post-it note is fair game.
Just like you wouldn’t write sensitive information down on a post-it note, do not use internal comments to share anything sensitive either (including, but not limited to, passwords, banking details, TAN codes, etc.).
How to enable internal comments
After installing and activating the plugin, go to the settings page (located underneath the Settings menu) and select which post types you want to enable internal comments for.
All registered post types that use the WordPress UI should be compatible with internal comments. That includes post types registered by WooCommerce such as products, shop orders, and coupons.
Enabling private comments
In addition to the supported post types, you also have the option to enable private internal comments. If enabled, this feature allows users to post internal comments that are only visible to themselves and to administrators.
Private comments are only available in the paid version of our plugin. If you still need a license you can acquire one here.
After making the necessary modifications, make sure to save your changes.