There is already an 'Idea' to add character limits to the General Comment (under the Reports Manager section), https://ideas.isams.com/ideas/MIS-I-2273, with which I concur.
But the General Comment also often gets completely forgotten about by teachers...
The general comment bar is 'complete'-status green, whether of not it has been completed, so teachers are having to spot a slight change in wording to see whether it still needs completing. Please could this bar be colour coded in the same way as the other reports on the screen?
If the General Comment is 'required', please could there be a validation, perhaps when the user tries to click away from the set, e.g. a yes/no message box that says something like, "you have not completed the required general comment, complete now?"
Please could either
the General Comment be added to the spreadsheet download/upload facility, or
after uploading a spreadsheet of reports, the wizard checks for 'required' General Comments and reminds the user to complete them?
Please could the status of the General Comment for each set be shown on the Overview tab, alongside each group's status bar?
Missing General Comments seem to hold up report publication every cycle, so please could we make it easier for teachers to remember to complete them correctly?