On the Windows app, the Advanced Annotation History enables users to track, manage, and export valuable annotations metadata from their documents including annotations' authors, timestamps, annotation counts, measurement sums, colors, tool types, text annotation content and more.
The Advanced Annotation History is designed to:
- provide teams with a comprehensive record of document changes and updates
- help construction professionals to conduct quantity takeoffs quickly and accurately
and more.
The Annotation History: Advanced view is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app, iOS and macOS apps and a simple version of the feature is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Web app.
On the Windows app, users have full access to the Advanced Annotation history capabilities. Users can search and configure annotation data in various ways to understand elements of their documents at a glance, they can get counts and sums of document measurements and markups and they can export data in a customizable format decided by them.
On the iOS and macOS apps, users can track, manage and filter metadata including annotations' authors, timestamps, measurement values, tool types, text annotation content and more.
On the web app, users can filter, sort and search by author, color and tool type. Sort data alphabetically, by recency or by where annotations appear in the document.
In this support article, we'll show you how to use the Advanced Annotation History on the Windows app. Learn how to:
What is the Advanced Annotation History?
The Advanced Annotation History is a detailed historical view of all document annotations and measurements.
How to enter Annotation History Advanced view
To enter the Annotation History: Advanced view on the Windows app
- Tap the book icon on the left hand side menu and then select the Annotation history icon
- Tap Advanced view
To enter the Annotation History: Advanced view on the iOS and macOS apps, from the canvas:
- Tap the icon at the left of the top menu
- Navigate to Annotations
- Select Advanced view.
How to sort and group annotation data
To enter Advanced sorting:
Tap the two up & down arrows from the Advanced Annotation History. Here, you can sort and group your annotation data in various ways.
Group content by
When you group your annotations by a particular category eg. page, color, timestamp or author, all annotations within that category will display together. You can then further sort your annotation data within that data category. Users can group data by:
- Tool type
- Page
- Timestamp
- Author
- Tool subject
Sort content by
-
Page: Where in your document the annotations appear (Lowest to highest or highest to lowest)
-
Timestamp: Sort by recency (Oldest first or newest first)
-
Author: Sort alphabetically (A-Z or Z-A)
-
Tool type: Sort alphabetically (A-Z or Z-A)
-
Tool subject: (A-Z or Z-A)
-
Length: (Low to high or high to low)
-
Area: (Low to high or high to low)
You can alter the way you configure your annotation data to extract the information you need with ease.
Show and hide data columns
Users have the option to show and hide particular data columns in the Advanced Annotation History table. To hide/show particular annotation history data fields, tap the 3 dots at the top left of the annotation data table. Select the data categories you would like to include and deselect the ones you would like to hide.
Understanding counts, sum and uniques
-
Count: the total number of values within a data column group. For example, this might be the number of measurements on a page, the amount of annotations with a tool subject or the number of annotations with text content etc.
-
Unique: the number of unique values within a data column group. For example, let's say you've used the measure length tool to measure the width of 15 doors on a floorplan; 13 doors are 820mm wide and 2 doors are 920mm wide. In this case, the Unique number (in the Length column) will be 2 as there are 2 unique door sizes.
-
Sum: Sum can be seen in the Length and Area columns. Use sum to get a total of your measurements
Export my document's annotation data
To export your document's annotation data as a CSV:
- From the Advanced Annotation history, tap the export icon.
- Save the document to your device
Note: the exported file will be display in the format that is set in Drawboard PDF ie. if your Annotation History table is formatted from left to right with Page, timestamp, author, this is how it will display in your exported CSV.
Expand and collapse the Annotation History
Select and drag the right edge of the Annotation History in order to expand and retract it. You can also expand and retract columns of your Annotation History table to customize its view.
