Annotation Tools & Color Options

Learn about tools to annotate Boardable documents.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Annotation Tool Options

• Free Hand
• Free Hand Highlight
• Free Text
• Highlight
• Rectangle
• Squiggly
• Strikeout
• Underline

II. Color Options

• From Annotate and Shapes Menus
• From Document Select
• Color Fill

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I. Annotation Tool Options

Click here for a guided walkthrough of annotation tools and color options.

Annotate options include the following:

• Free Hand: draw with pencil on documents

• Free Hand Highlight: draw with highlighter on documents

• Free Text: type on documents

• Highlight: highlight text

• Rectangle: add rectangle to document

• Squiggly: underline text with wavy line

• Strikeout: strike text

• Underline: underline text with straight line

Free Hand

To use Free Hand on a document:

1. Click Free Hand in Annotate menu (pencil icon, hover to see name)

   

2. Choose color for drawing

   1. To choose between red, black, blue, and green lines, click the Free Hand button showing the desired color

      1. For additional details, please see From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         

   2. Click on document and drag cursor while holding down the mouse button

      1. Release mouse button when drawing is complete

         

Free Hand Highlight

To use Free Hand Highlight:

1. Click Free Hand Highlight in Annotate menu

   

2. Choose color for Free Hand Highlight

   1. To choose between red, black, blue, and green lines, click the Free Hand Highlight button showing the desired color

      1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         

3. Click and drag cursor across document while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button where free hand highlight should end

      

Free Text

To add free text to a document:

1. Click Free Text in Annotate menu

   

2. Best practice: select the following options before clicking on document to type

   1. Font

   2. Font size

   3. Horizontal justification

   4. Vertical justification

      1. To select these options:

         1. Click the Free Text button showing the desired color twice

         2. Click Text

            

         3. Make desired formatting selections

         4. Click Colors to select new text color

            1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

   5. Stroke (border)

      1. To set border:

         1. Click the Free Text button showing the desired color twice

         2. Click Stroke

            

         3. Select desired border color

            1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         4. Click on circle beneath Stroke and drag to desired line width

            1. Note: Stroke must be set to size larger than 0 Pt for border

   6. Fill

      1. For more details on color fill, please refer to color options for Color Fill

3. Click on document

4. Begin typing

   1. Style options available when typing

      

Highlight

There are two ways to highlight text:

1. Using the Annotate menu

2. Directly from the document

Note: highlighting the same text more than once darkens highlight.

To highlight text using the Annotate menu:

1. Click Highlight in Annotate Menu

   

2. Choose color for highlighting

   1. To choose yellow, blue, green, and pink highlighting, click the Highlight button showing the desired color

      1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         

3. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button where highlight should end

      

To highlight text directly from document:

1. Click the Select button

   

2. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button — annotation options display

3. Click Highlight button

   1. Selected text is highlighted

   2. For more details, please refer to color options From Document Select

      

       

Rectangle

To add a rectangle to a document:

1. Click Rectangle in the Annotate menu

   

2. Choose color for rectangle

   1. To choose between red, blue, black, and green rectangle with default formatting, click Rectangle button showing the desired line color

      1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

      2. Formatting options default to the following:

         • Fill: none

         • Style: solid

           

   2. To switch between rectangle with straight lines (Solid) and scalloped lines (Cloudy):

      1. Click the same Rectangle button a second time

      2. Click the box beneath Style

         

      3. Click desired style

   3. For more details on color fill, please refer to color options for Color Fill

3. Click and drag cursor across document while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button when rectangle reaches desired size

      
       

Squiggly

There are two ways to underline text with Squiggly:

1. Using annotate menu

2. Directly from document

Note: Squiggly can be used on a string of text only once.

To use Squiggly from Annotate menu:

1. Click Squiggly in the Annotate menu

   

2. Choose color for Squiggly

   1. To choose between red, blue, black, and green, click the Squiggly button showing the desired color

      1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         

3. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button when squiggly line should end

      

To use Squiggly directly from document:

1. Click the Select button

   

2. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button — annotation options display

3. Click Squiggly button

   1. Text is underlined with Squiggly

   2. For more details, please refer to color options

      

Strikeout

There are two ways to strike text:

1. Using Annotate menu

2. Directly from document

To strike text using Annotate menu:

1. Click Strikeout in Annotate menu

   

2. Choose color for strikeout

   1. To choose between red, blue, black, and green strikes, click the Strikeout button showing the desired color

      1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         

3. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button where strikeout should end

      
       

To strike text directly from document:

1. Click the Select button

   

2. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button — annotation options display

3. Click Strikeout button

   1. Selected text is struck

   2. For more details, please refer to color options From Document Select

      

Underline

There are two ways to underline text:

1. Using Annotate menu

2. Directly from document

Note: a line of text can only be underlined once.

To underline text using Annotate menu:

1. Click Underline in Annotate menu

   

2. Choose color for underlining

   1. To choose red, blue, black, and green underlining, click the Underline button showing the desired color

      1. For additional details, please refer to color options From Annotate and Shapes Menus

         

3. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button where underline should end

      
       

To underline text directly from document:

1. Click the Select button

   

2. Click and drag cursor across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button — annotation options display

3. Click Underline button

   1. Selected text is underlined

   2. For more details, please refer to color options

      

II. Color Options

Custom color choices are available for all annotation / shape / additional tool options with the exception of the standard options provided under Stamp. There are three different color customization methods:

1. From Annotate and Shapes Menus

   1. Includes stroke (border) and opacity (transparency)

2. From Document Select

   1. Includes stroke (border) and opacity (transparency)

3. Color Fill

   1. Includes fill color and opacity (transparency)

From Annotate and Shapes Menus

To customize color:

1. Click the annotation option, then click a default color option button twice to customize color

   

2. Color options display

   1. Click the desired color to update selected tool

      1. See step number 3 for custom colors

   2. To customize opacity, click on circle beneath Opacity and drag to adjust percentage

      1. The higher the opacity, the less transparent lines are

   3. To customize stroke (if available), click on circle beneath Stroke and drag to adjust point size

      1. The higher the stroke, the wider lines are

         

3. For more color options, click + beneath Custom

   1. Click desired color in grid or type in Hex code

   2. Click Ok

      

From Document Select

To customize color directly from document:

1. Click the Select button

   

2. Click and drag across text while holding down the mouse button

   1. Release mouse button

      1. Annotation tool options display

         1. Options shown from left to right: copy, highlight, underline, squiggly, strikeout, link

            

3. Click desired annotation tool option

   1. Formatting options display (highlight displayed below)

      1. May be slightly different depending on option selected

         

4. Click Style button

   

5. Click desired color

   

   1. Annotation on document changes to color clicked

6. For more color options, click + beneath Custom

   1. Click desired color in grid or type in Hex code

   2. Click Ok

      

Color Fill

Color fill choices are available for the following options:

• Rectangle

• Callout

• Free text

• Circle

• Cloud

• Polygon

To color-fill annotations:

1. Click the annotation option, then click a default color option button twice

   

2. Click Fill if available

   

3. Click desired fill color

4. To customize opacity, click on circle beneath Opacity and drag to adjust percentage

   1. The higher the opacity, the less transparent fill is

5. For more color options, click + beneath Custom

   1. Click desired color in grid or type in Hex code

   2. Click Ok

      

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Related Articles

• Annotations Access and Overview: learn why annotating is a good option and how to access annotations for your documents

• Additional Annotation Options: learn how to annotate a document using shapes and other tools (such as callouts, stamps, and comments)

• Annotations: Edit / Delete: learn how to edit, move, erase, delete, or undo / redo annotations added to a document

• Document Audit Log: learn which document actions are logged and how to view them

• Document Center — Download Files & Folders: learn how to download documents from the Document Center, one at a time, or in bulk

• How to Disable Document Downloads: learn how to prevent document downloads