The threaded discussions are maintained on either the Web server that has OSE installed or a remote SQL Server computer. To participate in a discussion, users configure their computers to point to the OSE-extended web . All user discussion items are displayed in a shared document that users can view either in the original Microsoft Office 2000 application or in most Web browsers. Because discussion items are stored separately from the shared document, users can modify the document without affecting the collaborative discussion. This separation also allows multiple users to create and edit discussion items simultaneously.
Users can also add discussion items to read-only documents.
By using the Collaboration toolbar, users can view, search, or filter discussions by author, or date and time. Discussions print on a separate page when the document is printed. Users can view discussions offline, but they cannot add to them offline. Users can participate in discussions about documents that are stored on a server remote from the Web server that contains the OSE-extended web. Top Adding discussion items to Office documents Office 2000 applications support different levels of functionality for the OSE Web Discussions feature.