How to Use zipBoard’s Review Tools to Annotate and Comment on Digital Content?

At zipBoard, we put a lot of emphasis on asynchronous collaboration, but that does not have to be on spreadsheets and team messages only. You can take your content and document collaboration further with annotations. Leave notes directly on your websites, videos, images, courses, and PDF documents - so that all communication is in-context and everyone stays in sync.

This feature is available to all users for many different content types. You will need to download a one-time browser plugin to use the annotation features. Soon, for some content types, you will not need the browser plugin.

Let’s jump right into annotating with zipBoard.

Adding content to zipBoard

First, you’ll want to add your content to your project. Select the project you want to add the file to and click on, “Review Content." There you’ll have the option to add a new file or choose from among the different content already added by your team members.

Adding annotations to the content

Once you’ve selected your desired content, it’s time to add some actionable feedback. For this content, I’ve gone with a pdf. You can obviously choose your own content type. The process remains the same.

To add a simple comment, click on the comment icon on the review bar on the left of your screen. And click where you want to add the comment. Here’s how:

PDFs

You will notice that the annotation is now present on the screen. Note that you can also mention people by adding an @.

There are many different annotation tools at your disposal.

Learn more about all the annotation tools.

Apart from pdfs, you can also review URLs, images, SCORM courses, and videos.

Here’s how you would add annotations to each of these files:

Videos

Select the video you want to annotate on and use the tools on your side to add the comments.

Images

After selecting the image, you can add the annotations as you like.

Webpages

Enter the URL you want to review. zipBoard supports both static and live websites.

SCORM courses

Add the course as a zip file into zipBoard. Select the content, and start reviewing it!

Here's how you would review a SCORM file in zipBoard.

View all annotations

To look at all the comments at once, you can click on the comment counter on the right of your screen. You can reply to each of these comments while clicking on them takes you to the individual comment.

Hide/Un-hide pop-ups

Content with multiple collaborators is bound to have numerous valuable feedback. However, they can often impede your view of the content itself. If the comments are blocking the content on your file then you can easily hide them. Just click on “Hide” to close all the popups. Don’t worry! Your feedbacks are still there. And is just a click away from you. So, if you want all the comments back then click “Unhide” which will make them visible once again.

Check comment/reply count

Your feedback counts. Quite literally!

The other thing that you’ll see is that there is a comment counter on the right side of the screen. Displaying the total count of the comments added.

These comments will however not reflect the replies to individual comments. Meaning, that if you reply to any comment, the comment counter will not change. You will instead notice a different counter for individual comments, keeping tabs on the number of replies to it. The default value is set to 1, which is the comment.

Manage and get tasks done

Providing feedback is one job. Getting those feedback reflected in the content is another. This is why with zipBoard, you can manage your annotations. All within a centralized task dashboard.

Learn more about using the task manager here.

Sharing the content for feedback

Oftentimes, you’ll need to share the content for external and internal feedback. To do this,

simply navigate to the file you want the feedback on. Then, click on the three dots on the top. You will see an option, “Share”. You will find there are multiple sharing options. Each with its use cases.

So, the first thing you’ll see is the, “Require Signup / Login” toggle. If you leave this one, the person giving feedback will require to log into zipBoard. However, while sharing a file with external stakeholders, especially with non-technical, people will prefer it if they don’t have to log in at all. So, leave this toggle off if that is the case for you.

You can learn more about the different sharing options here.

Get reviewing!

Now that you’re aware of the different review functionalities and use cases in zipBoard, you’re all set to give contextual feedback on any content. Allowing you and your teammates to do what you do best… creating incredible content!