When group projects occur in the workplace, one of the old standbys for communication is the e-mail discussion. Members of a team send e-mails back and forth, going over various approaches and ideas. But e-mails can be cumbersome. Which message had the file you needed for the annual statistics? Who was replying to whom about next week’s meeting? Did you hit “reply” or “reply all”?

One good way to avoid these logistical problems is to use SharePoint’s discussion board feature. In a discussion board, all the comments are in one place, for everyone to quickly see and read. Discussions are threaded so their order and flow is easier to follow. By default, all new team sites created in SharePoint have a discussion board, but here’s how to create one of your own.

Note: SharePoint’s discussion board feature isn’t a replacement for a full-fledged forum management or bulletin board system. It’s effective for a relatively small number (less than 100) of original threads. Plan to create many individual discussion boards if you need a large number of topics.  You may also want to consider a new SharePoint 2013 and Exchange 2013 feature called Site Mailbox. This allows your site to have an email box just like a user.

Discussion Board Topics in this Post:

  • How to Create a Discussion Board
  • Start a New Discussion Board
  • How to Reply on a Discussion Board
  • How to Edit a Discussion
  • How to Delete a Discussion
  • How to Remove a Discussion Board

How to Create a Discussion Board:

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the site where you want to create a discussion board. The site’s home page will open.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon, then click the Add an app option. The Your Apps page will appear in the newest view.

  • Scroll down and click the Discussion Board icon. The Adding Discussion Board dialog box will appear.

  • Scroll down and click the Discussion Board icon. The Adding Discussion Board dialog box will appear.

  • In the Name field, type a name for the discussion board.
  • In the Description field, enter a description for the discussion board.
  • Click Create. The new discussion board will open.

Exception: If you cannot create a discussion board, there is an existing discussion board with the same name or URL or you do not have specific permissions to create a discussion board. Check the permissions settings to ensure you have the appropriate access rights.

Start a New Discussion Board:

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the site where you want to participate in a discussion. The site’s home page will open.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon, then the Site Contents option. The Site Contents page will open.
  • Click the icon for the discussion board you want to join. The board’s home page will open.
  • Click the new discussion link. The Discussion entry page will open.
  • In the Subject field, type a topic for the discussion. The subject field is the short description that will be displayed in the list.
  • In the Body field, add any message you want. The editing tools will appear. You can copy content in from a Word document, Web page, or any other source of content.
  • To attach a file, click the Insert tab, then Upload File. The Add a document dialog box will open. Each discussion item can have multiple files attached if necessary.

  • Click Browse. The Choose File to Upload dialog box will open.

  • Navigate to the file, click on it to select it, and click Open. The Choose File to Upload dialog box will close, and the file will appear in the Choose a File field on the Add a document dialog box.

  • Select the Destination Library for the new file. The library in which the attachment will be stored will be selected.
  • Click the Overwrite existing files checkbox if desired.
  • Click OK. The file will appear in the Body of the discussion.
  • Click Save. The new discussion will appear on the discussion board page.

Exception: If you cannot create a discussion, you do not have specific permissions to create discussions on a discussion list. Check the permissions settings to ensure you have the appropriate access rights.

How to Reply on a Discussion Board:

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the site where you want to participate in a discussion. The site’s home page will open.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon, then the Site Contents option. The Site Contents page will open.
  • Click the icon for the discussion board you want to join. The board’s home page will open.
  • Click the discussion topic to which you want to respond. The discussion page will open.
  • In the Add a Reply field, enter a reply.
  • Click Reply. The new comment will appear on the discussion page.

Exception: If you can’t reply to a discussion, you have read-only permissions and do not have specific permissions to create a reply. Check the permissions settings to ensure you have the appropriate access rights.

How to Edit a Discussion:

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the site where you want to participate in a discussion board. The site’s home page will open.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon, then the Site Contents option. The Site Contents page will open.
  • Click the icon for the discussion board you want to join. The board’s home page will open.
  • Click the discussion topic to join. The discussion page will open.
  • Find the comment you wish to edit and click Edit for that comment. The comment’s text will be made available to edit.
  • Edit the comment as needed and click Save. The edited comment will now appear in the discussion.

Note: If versioning is turned on for the list, prior versions of your comment will be available. Please see the task “Activate Version Control” for an example of how to access the version history of a SharePoint list item.

Exception: If you can’t edit your response, you do not have specific permissions to edit discussions. Check the permissions settings to ensure you have the appropriate access rights.

How to Delete a Discussion:

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the site where you want to remove comments from a discussion board. The site’s home page will open.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon, then the Site Contents option. The Site Contents page will open.
  • Click the icon for the discussion board you want to join. The board’s home page will open.
  • Click the conversation topic to join. The discussion page will open.
  • Find the comment you wish to remove and next to the Edit menu found below the reply for that comment, click Open Menu. The Open menu will open.
  • Click Delete. A confirmation dialog box will open.
  • Click OK. The comment will be removed from the discussion board.

Exception: If you cannot delete a conversation, you do not have specific permissions to delete conversations. Check the permissions settings to ensure you have the appropriate access rights.

How to Remove a Discussion Board:

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the site where you want to remove comments from a discussion board. The site’s home page will open.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon, then the Site Contents option. The Site Contents page will open.
  • Click the icon for the discussion board you want to join. The board’s home page will open.
  • Click on the List tab, and change the Current View to Management.
  • Click on the More button next to the Discussion Thread that you would like to delete (as indicated by 3 periods ( . . . ).
  • Click on Delete. A confirmation dialog box will open.

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About the Author: Tommy Reynolds

Based in Burlington, VT, Tommy is a seasoned engineer with 15 years of experience in developing advanced scripting methods for SharePoint procedures, including site provisioning, migrations, and installations. He manages an off-shore app development team and specializes in admin automation via PowerShell, interface development using CSS, JScript, and JQuery, search and datasource integration, and advanced security solutions for ADFS and hybrid cloud environments. Outside of work, Tommy enjoys snowboarding, drag racing, biking, and sports cars.