What companies and individuals are doing with A.nnotate

The company sends out large numbers of documents for expert opinions and feedback. Each document goes to several experts who are paid by the hour. Previously experts would often end up saying the same thing independently and there would be a time-consuming review process afterwards to merge the opinions. Now they use A.nnotate and it all takes place on the one online shared version of the document. For example, once one expert has explained an issue the others can see it instantly and just say if they agree. The result is that it takes much less time, both total time and hours of expert time, to arrive at a decision.

The web designer sends a link to an annotatable version of their site to get comments from a client who can then attach notes to the exact image or text which needs changing. Several designers can also attach suggestions to an early version of a design which the product manager later tags with the final decisions.

People use A.nnotate for personal knowledge management. For example a researcher uploads all the papers she reads and tags or annotates parts she wants to refer to later. It makes it easy to find the right references when writing a paper and to keep track of things that need to be revisited later.

Directors collect issues to be raised on discussion documents in advance of a meeting. Everything gets collected in one place and it makes it easier for the convener to plan and track issues and to record various opinions on documents.

Students and pupils are instructed to annotate a text as part of an individual or group assignment. They can submit it and have it marked online. This is also used in class sessions for teaching music where the students annotate PDF music scores using the image annotation functions.

The printer generates their print ready version of a document and sends it for checking by the client who can make comments on the text, and mark any regions of the document that need attention before printing. It makes a much more efficient solution than sending out proofs by email or on paper.

Companies use A.nnotate for product comparison. Retailers use the web snapshot function to keep a record of their competitors' prices and presentation of comparable products. In a similar way, they track and annotate relevant pages in PDF product catalogs.

A.nnotate is used for preparing multi-author documents where there is one lead-writer and the co-authors provide suggestions and comments. The lead author uploads a draft, collects comments, edits the original and uploads a new draft.

Companies that have extensive documentation as manuals or on their website benefit from A.nnotate because it lets their users communicate with them directly about the text. Users are given access to an annotatable version of the documents where they can ask questions about aspects that are not clear, mark passages that need updating, or make suggestions for improvements.