---
title: "Use comments over a dialog"
description: "When a dialog blocks the page: open comments over it, and close them again."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://commentware.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Use comments over a dialog

Open comments while a site's dialog, or a video or slide deck gone fullscreen,
blocks the page — and close them again when you are done. While one of those is
up, the extension is in **Inert mode**: the dialog blocks everything else, and
comments close themselves with a line saying why. Learn more about [dialogs that
block the page](/docs/concepts/dialogs/).

## Prerequisites

- The extension installed and connected to a server. See [Install a server](/docs/install-server/).

## Open comments over the dialog

If you only need to read or answer a thread, the side panel is never blocked by
the page. See [the side panel](/docs/using/finding/#the-side-panel).

1. Press the keyboard shortcut — `Alt+C`, or `⌥C` on a Mac — while the dialog is
   up. If the overlay is already open and says a dialog is blocking the page,
   close it and press the shortcut again.

The shortcut keeps working when nothing else on the page does, because it
reaches the extension through the browser rather than through the page. The
site's dialog stays open, and everything typed into it stays where it was.

## Close comments again

1. Press the shortcut again to close comments.

The page works again straight away. If comments were still blocking the page
after the dialog went, this is also what unblocks it.

## Check that it worked

With comments open over the dialog, the toolbar says "The comment overlay is
blocking this page, so the page cannot be used until you close it",
and every pin, the toolbar and the composer work. Once the dialog is gone and the
page is back in **Interactive mode**, the overlay and the page both work.

## Next steps

- [Comment on a page](/docs/using/comments/): leave the comment you opened the
  overlay for.