eMargin

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User Guide - Annotating

Annotating texts, and reading and discussing other users' annotations, is the main purpose of eMargin. The following sections will explain these features.

Page Layout
Annotations
Making New Annotations
Sections
Toolbox Functions
Update Time
Active Group
Quick Filters
Colours
Tags

Page Layout

When viewing a text the top of the page will display the text's title and author, as well as any other information relating to it. The middle of the page shows the text itself, with annotations displayed as highlights and underlines in a variety of colours.

Along the right hand edge of the page is the Toolbox, containing some tools to use on the annotations. The Toolbox will 'float' up and down the page as you scroll so it's always available.

Annotations

Annotations are displayed in the text as highlights and underlines in a variety of colours. To view an annotation click on the highlighted text, a popup window will open. You can move the window by dragging it and close it by clicking on the X in the top right-hand corner. Within the popup is a sequence to tabs, each one for a different type of information about each annotation, these are:

Comments: This shows the comments that have been made about this annotation, allowing users to discuss the highlighted text. To add a comment enter your message in the lower textbox and press the Tick button when you're done.
Tags: Tags are single word identifiers intended to describe something about the annotation. You can click on a tag in this section to limit the visible annotations to those labelled with the same tag. To add tags enter them in the lower textbox, make sure you separate each tag with a space. When you're finished press the Tick button to save your changes.
Look Up: This allows you to quickly find out more information about the highlighted text by searching for it on other websites. For example you could click on Oxford English Dictionary to find a definition, Wikipedia to search for an encyclopedia entry, or WebCorp to see how that word or phrase is used on the web.
Permalink: This provides a direct web link to the annotation. Useful for linking to specific interpretations. These links can also be used in comments within the same text.

Making New Annotations

To make a new annotation simply highlight the section of text you'd like to annotate. This is done by dragging the mouse pointer over the text (i.e. the same way you would select text in Microsoft Word and similar programs). A window will then popup allowing you to enter the information want to record.

In the popup window there are two text boxes. The first allows you to write a comment about the highlighted text. The second allows you to enter tags. There is more information about these in the section above. The first button allows you to Look Up the highlighted text in an external website. The second button allows you to choose a colour for your highlight. When you're done press the Tick button to save your annotation.

Sections

If a text is short it will fit onto one page, however longer texts must be split into separate sections. Use the Sections link in the Toolbox to view a list of sections and choose the one to work with.

Toolbox Functions

In the Toolbox on the right hand side of the page there is a sequence of buttons:

Preferences: This allows you to change how the text is displayed and how you can make highlights.
Print: This opens a new page containing a printable version of the text.
History: This shows the most recent additions made to a text.
Colours: This allows you to specify labels for each colour. A useful way of categorising annotations.
Tag Cloud: This displays a tag cloud made from the tags that have been assigned to annotations. The most frequent tags will be displayed in a larger font.
Search: You can search for annotations based on the highlighted text, text in the comments, colour, tags, creator, group and date.

Update Time

A time is displayed in the Toolbox showing when the last update occurred on the page. Users can work on a text synchronously and see each others updates in real-time. Updates are processed periodically and after making a change, but there is also a Refresh button which can be used to perform an immediate update.

Active Group

The currently active group is displayed in the Toolbox. This determines which highlights are visible based on the annotator's group memberships. You can use the Switch button to change the restriction to another group or remove the restriction.

Quick Filters

There are three buttons underneath the Group box in the Toolbox which allow you to quickly change which highlights are displayed:

Show only my annotations: Clicking this button will restrict the annotations shown to those that you have made or commented on.
Show all: Clicking this button will remove any restrictions on which highlights are displayed, except the Group restriction.
Hide all: Clicking this button will hide all of the highlights.

Colours

Six different colours can be used for annotations. These colours can mean anything you intend them to, but remember that other users may be annotating the same text.

You can use the colours to limit the annotations displayed. To do this click on a coloured button in the Toolbox. Click the Show all button to show annotations of any colour.

It is also possible to categorise the colours by adding labels to them. To edit them open the Colours popout (in the Toolbox) and use the text boxes to enter the labels.