In these days of remote work and online communication, it is more important than ever to communicate clearly and call people's attention to high-priority information. SmartSuite gives you a tool to do just that with the SmartDoc Callout, a special text block that highlights information and makes it stand out from the rest of a document's text.

When should I use SmartDoc Callouts?

There are a number of cases where Callouts can visually improve the presentation of your information. A few ideas:

Add a warning to instructions for critical tasks to emphasize safety, proper protocols, COVID warnings, and similar important considerations.
Highlight a best practice or "pro tip" in documentation
Insert a disclaimer or note that something in the document has changed
Use Callouts to emphasize success and error conditions for a test that needs to be performed
Add notes that are visibly distinct from the content of the document, letting the reader know that they are separate from the main text.

Using SmartDoc Callouts

Adding a new Callout

Callouts are added through the slash-command menu. Here are the steps:

Type a / character at the start of a new line or after a space
Type all or part of the word callout or scroll to the item with your mouse (it's in the Advanced section)
Click Insert Callout

The Callout will be added to your SmartDoc, and your cursor will be focused in the new control - you're ready to add your content. Also, the Callout type is defaulted to "Info."

Here's how it will look:

Setting Callout Type

As we just mentioned Callout type defaults to "Info," but you can change to any of six different types. Just click the icon on the Callout toolbar that corresponds with the type you want. Here is the list of all available types and what they look like:

You can change Callout Type any time, not just when you first add the Callout to your SmartDoc.

Embedding content in a Callout

A Callout changes the background color of its content but otherwise lets you enter any SmartDoc content into its container. You can add tables, format text, add section headers, embed images - anything you can do in the main body of the SmartDoc.

Here is a sample Callout with text formatting, a table and an @mention just as an example of what can be done:

Edit a Callout

Edit the content of your callout just like any other SmartDoc content, just click on the part of the Callout you want to change, or click the Callout Type icon you want to change it to - the icon and background color will update dynamically.

Remember to save the record to keep the changes you make to your Callout.

Deleting a Callout

If you don't need your callout anymore (maybe the document revision notes you had in it have all been addressed) you can easily remove it from your SmartDoc. Just do the following:

Click on the Callout
Click the Trash Can icon (a "Delete" tooltip will show on hover)

The Callout is instantly deleted. Decide you want it back? Just click Control-Z on your keyboard to undo the delete and get the whole Callout back - intact!