Editing individual annotations

Jul 05, 2012

We have been wasting a lot of time trying to make changes to recorded annotations, animations and audio.

Is there a way or a best way to record audio, annotations and animations so that you can edit one of the three without erasing the other? We really want to be able to edit the size and shape of a single annotation without losing all the other annotations on a slide. We also want to be able to record the audio separate from the annotations so we don't have to re-record the audio when editing the annotations or animations.

7 Replies
Jeanette Brooks

Hi Rachel!  A good work flow is to do things in this order:

  1. Import or record your narration
  2. Sync your animations
  3. Add annotations

If you need to go back and re-do anything, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Re-annotating: At this time there isn't a way to edit annotations once they're in place - to change the annotations you would need to re-annotate the slide. When you do that, Presenter replaces your previous annotations with the new ones (but the timing of your sync'd animations will stay intact, so you won't lose any of that work). 
  • Replacing narration: If you replace the audio on your slide after you sync animations & add annotations, unfortunately that'll throw things off. Any annotations that you've applied will get removed, and the sync'd animations will revert back to whatever default timing you've set in Presentation Options>Publish (there's a field there called "On mouse click animations without set timings display after [x] seconds" ). 
  • Re-syncing animations: If you re-sync your animations from scratch, that will cause any annotations on that slide to get removed. However, if you use the audio editor to fine-tune your sync'd animations instead, all your annotations will stay intact. Here's a little more about how to use the audio editor to fine-tune your sync'ing

Morals of the story: it's best to delay sync'ing animations & adding annotations until after you know the audio on a slide is solid and won't be changed. And if you need to change some timings on your sync'd animations, it's best to do that via the audio editor rather than re-syncing from scratch.

I hope that helps!  

Renee' Hermeling

I would love to see an enhancement allowing annotations to be edited.  I have training presentations for internal applications.  As enhancements and changes are made to the applications, I must update the presentation.  New screen shots may mean that one annotation is now too high, or too far to the left.  Having the ability to edit where on the screen they appear, as opposed to re-annotaing the entire slide would save so much time!

Jeanette Brooks

Totally agree Renee!! The good news is, our next release of Articulate Studio will offer a timeline where you can adjust the timings of animations & annotations in a single place, without having to redo them. You can get a sneak peek on this page. (Scroll to the part that shows the Timeline.) We don't have a release date pegged yet for the new version, but the beta will be starting sometime soon and if you want you can apply to be a beta tester by emailing beta@articulate.com.

Mike Smith

I am looking for a way to edit my Articulate annotations, not PowerPoint animations. For example, if I want to change the time at which an annotation occurs; or delete one; or add a new one without re-annotating the slide again from scratch.

Jeanette's post says "The good news is, our next release of Articulate Studio will offer a timeline where you can adjust the timings of animations & annotations in a single place, without having to redo them." - did that get shelved?

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