How can I format Comments to make them clearer?
Annotate PRO (AP) supports HTML text editing! So bolding, italics, underlining, etc.
However, whether formatted text appears in your application of choice depends on that application.
Luckily AP is smart enough to know where it can apply formatting and where it needs to use just plain text.
Some quick examples:
- Microsoft Word comment bubbles: some formatting possible – see below for detail. Note: there are some quirks to formatting text for insertion as Word comments; Inserting text into the body of a Word document is straightforward.
- Gmail: full HTML formatting supported.
- Discussion boards in LMS platforms like Google Classroom, Canvas, and Blackboard: full HTML formatting supported.
- Microsoft Word inline text (inserted into the body of a document): full HTML formatting supported.
- Google Doc comments: some formatting possible – see below.
- Canvas SpeedGrader document comments: plain text only.
These variations are due entirely to the various platforms, not AP.
Here’s the editor – showing a new comment under construction:
Here’s how support for formatted text breaks down across popular platforms.
| Platform | Bold & Italics | Clickable Links | Other formatted text |
| Google Docs comments | Yes | Yes | No |
| Google Docs inline | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Word comments | Yes | Yes |
Superscripts, bullets, numbered lists, underlining *** Note: Word converts bulleted lists into numbered lists when creating comments. So ‘plain’ unordered lists are not currently possible. |
| Microsoft Word inline | Yes | Yes | Yes/All |
| Canvas LMS SpeedGrader comments | No | No (plain text) | No |
| Canvas LMS text editor | Yes | Yes | Yes/All |
| Blackboard Document comments (Box viewer) | No | No (plain text) | No |
| Blackboard text editor | Yes | Yes | Yes/All |
| Any web editor (Gmail, Google Classroom, WordPress, blogs) |
Yes | Yes | Yes/All |
Notes:
- In Microsoft Word and Google Docs http, https, and www plain-text links will convert to clickable links automatically. So just enter them as plain text. You don’t even need the “http” part. If you do format links using the AP text editor they’ll show correctly as clickable.
- After inserting a comment via AP in Google Docs you have to hit a space bar before you can click Comment to add the text. Until you click Comment in Google Docs, links will appear as plain text. Click Comment and you’ll see your desired outcome. (Great timesaver: if your cursor is in the comment bubble, just Tab to put the ‘focus’ on the Comment button, then click the Space bar on your keyboard – it’s the same as reaching for your mouse and clicking on the button – Look Ma, no mouse!).
If your experiences differ from the above, or you’d like us to tune AP for your web application, just contact us!