Printable Annotations- Critical Need

[Robin139]

My Master's Capstone professor uses Canvas to annotate all of my paper submissions and I am in a 14-week program.  However, Canvas will not allow me to download and print the paper with annotations as they appear along the right column.  This is going to mean a lot of manual rewriting for me over the next many weeks.  Come on, Canvas- this should be a simple formatting fix so that we can print annotations/professor's suggestions.  This is a critical need for those of us in long programs who must incorporate professor's feedback in our papers.

[James]

@Robin139 

Canvas allows you to download a version of your assignment with annotations created via DocViewer. This lesson from the Canvas Student Guide explains how: How do I use DocViewer in Canvas assignments as a student?

Not every PDF viewer supports those PDF comments, though. Adobe Acrobat Reader is one that does (the PDF readers built into the browsers generally do not). You may need to save the file to disk and then open it (depending on how you have your browser set up) rather than opening it directly in the browser. Follow these instructions from Adobe on how to enable the comments: Print pop-up comments in place.

[Stef_retired]

@Robin139 

Many thanks to @James for providing the solution!  How do I view annotation feedback comments from my... additionally provides details on downloading the PDF with annotations for printing. As this is existing functionality in Canvas, we've archived the idea.

[LorenaHitchens]

I want to reopen this. I don't think this is a feature request. This is a software defect, and should be treated as a bug.

I have experienced a similar problem as the OP, but manifested in a slightly different way.

I have a Mac and I use Preview for viewing PDFs.

• I received grades and inline comments from instructor A. He used the blue placemarker icon. I downloaded the PDF, and I can see his comments when I hover over the indicator. Hunky dory.
• I received grades and inline comments from instructor B on a different paper. She used the yellow highlighter to make inline comments. I downloaded that PDF and could **not** see the comments. After much gnashing of teeth, I finally worked around this by duplicating every single one of her yellow "highlighter" comments into a blue "placemarker" comment, so I could see them in the download.
• I received grades and inline comments from instructor C. He used the blue "outline box" to make his comments. Same problem as with instructor B's comments: they don't show up in the downloaded PDF. 
• To be clear, in cases B and C, the indicator (yellow highlight or blue box) **do** show in the PDF download, but the **comments** connected to those icons, are not visible.

This time, I dug around and dug around in FAQs and community pages, and could not find the solution. After contacting support, the agent almost immediately found the answer, which I quote below:

"The first example you gave me used the Area Annotation tool in Speedgrader, which adds comments in a separate layer of the PDF document. The highlighter tool does the same thing. Other types of annotations, including the placemarker, add the comment in the same PDF layer. You would need to view the document in a program that allows you to view multiple PDF layers if you do not see the comments after downloading"

Now, I can't think of any reason why I, as a student, or my instructors, would want these markers and the comments to be "sometimes" in the same layer of the PDF, and other times, not. There is no user advantage to ever doing this. This is a bug. 

Yes, I now have a workaround (use Adobe products or a Chrome browser) but that should not be necessary. PDFs are meant to be universal.

I also have an uphill fight now to educate the faculty to be merciful and use consistent approaches in choosing their comment markers, for the students' sake. I have to file a ticket with the school Learning dept to update their documentation, and I have to make other Mac users aware of the workaround. None of that would be necessary if the Canvas software just treated all comments the same way, and always made them available in a single-layer PDF, reaching the lowest common denominator among all users.

I spent 26 years in software development before going back to grad school. This is a bug, and it should be fixed. At the very least, update the documentation immediately. (here would be good: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/How-do-I-view-annotation-feedback-comments-from-my-...)

[paul_turner]

Totally agree with you about annotations with Canvas, A nightmare both for students and staff - Rubbish