DocViewer Comment boxes TOO big!

[uribes]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

As part of the formative assessment cycle, I leave comments on my students' work and ask them to "comment back" to me using the "Reply" feature. This worked great with Crocodoc; however, with the new DocViewer, the boxes are very large, even when there isn't a lot of text. This causes comments to take up a ton of space, which means that comments often do not appear next to the part of the assignment in question. They will end up way down the page, making it hard for students to track the comments, and reply to my prompts/questions. Also, as the comment boxes expand with student replies, they cover one another and sometimes the boxes behind cannot be viewed. Students have expressed frustration regarding inability to view all comments, and the only way for them to view the boxes underneath is for me to move the comments around. When I move comments, they no longer point to the part of the assignment that has to be fixed. Please help! docviewer, submission feedback

Comments from Instructure

Please see Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer  for updates

Please also see Canvas Beta Release Notes (2017-10-16) 

Additional work has been completed in Canvas Beta Release Notes (2018-04-30) & https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-14650-canvas-beta-release-notes-2018-05-21 

[beerline_n]

I have experienced this issue too, even without students replying to my comments. I would also add that I have noticed this related issue (see below). I don't know why the pop-up with my name has to appear over the text that I am trying to comment on. It seems redundant when my name is also at the top of every comment. The only way to get the pop-up to go away is to click on something else. It is slowing down my commenting and is very annoying.

[s_mccracken]

I have the same problem. I was looking at some feedback originally created in Crocodoc. The comment boxes in Crocodoc were much better placed than they are now in the DocViewer. The comment boxes at the end are now piled on top of each other, while other comment boxes are very far from the highlighted text they are commenting on. The placement of comment boxes can be improved by zooming in, but then to fit the full width of the submitted document on the screen, I have to hide the right pane (and even then, some of the comment boxes overlap).

There is no need for so much white space after the commenter's name (especially since it is in bold, and so easily distinguishable from the comment itself), or between the border of the box and the text itself. The comment boxes seem to be a fixed width. Why not allow them to increase in width automatically, so that they fit in the screen (i.e. so the right hand side of the comment box is not hidden by the right pane)?

[trisha_winn]

I have the same problem. It is terribly annoying, and seriously slows down my grading. I can not see the sentence I am commenting on! 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello  @uribes ‌...

Yesterday a document called https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11679-docviewer-plan was posted to the Canvas Community.  You might want to check out #1 and #4 for the plans that Instructure has to enhance DocViewer.

[uribes]

Thank you for this information! This is great news, and the other new features sound great, as well. 

[Renee_Carney]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas 

Please see Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer  for updates

[Renee_Carney]

 @uribes  Thank You  for submitting this idea, as well as,  @beerline_n  Nice Work ,  @trisha_winn  Nice Work ,  @s_mccracken  Nice Work , &  @Chris_Hofer  Nice Work  for your contributions. Your investment in this idea helped refine a feature which is now part of Canvas! 

[erinhmcmillan]

An additional change in Canvas Beta Release Notes (2017-10-16) adds to this idea further and helps support multiple comments within a page.

Thanks!

Erin

[Renee_Carney]

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13179 for the additional change.

[s_mccracken]

Why has this idea been marked as "completed". The annotation boxes do not appear to have changed in size. Why are they still so big? Why have so much wasted white space between the text and the border of the annotation box? Although the annotation boxes no longer overlap each other, they run off down the page and are too far from what is being commented on. Also, only one line of comment is visible until one clicks on the ellipses in the comment box when there would be space for 2-3 lines without all the wasted white space (the comment boxes also change order when one clicks on the ellipsis, which is quite annoying).