There’s no question that inline annotations are a neat feature. I love that I can drag an image into the bubble so I know what or who I want to describe, but the minimalist in me screams that the page gets too busy and the notes interrupt the flow of reading. Scrivener provides a Comments feature where you can still write notes to yourself that refers to the text and: Comments.
Let’s say that you’ve marked up the manuscript with inline annotations. You’re crossed-eyed from all the different colored notes with their codes and now you wish you wrote comments instead. Guess what? You can change those annotations into comments. Firs select the items in the Binder you want to make the change to comments. If you happen to be in the Corkboard or Outliner view, switch over to Scrivenings to display the editor. Now click anywhere within the Editor to activate it. Simply follow these steps to create comments:
1. Go to Format->Convert->Inline Annotations to Inspector Comments. You’ll see in the two illustrations below that the inline annotations disappear and are replaced by a colored link around the nearest word. The link color matches the annotation color, as does the comment in the sidebar to the right.
Text with Inline Annotations
Inline Annotations turned into Comments.
If you want to skip inline annotations altogether and just work with comments instead, just click the spot in the text where you want to link a comment, or select with your mouse the section you want to comment on. Then go to Format->Comment. Or click on the comment icon in the toolbar. When the comment comment appears in the sidebar, type your comment, and click outside the Comment text box to save it.
If you want to edit or delete a comment, double-click in the Text box and type the edit. To delete, click on the X in the text box. Don’t like the light yellow of the comments? You can change the color the same way you changed it with inline annotations by following these steps:
1. Select the comment you want to change in the Comments and Footnotes pane (the sidebar to the right).
2. Format->Font->Show Colors. The Colors window will open
3. Select the desired color. The selected comments will change to the new color.
When you’ve reached the point of wanting to address your comments and make changes in the text within the document, you can click on the comment in the comment box in the Comments and Footnotes pane. When you click on the comment, you’ll see the highlighted text in the editor “jump out” showing that it’s activated.
If you want all your comments and annotations in a list in a separate document that’s print ready. You can export them by following these steps:
1. For specific comments in specific documents, select those documents in the Binder.
2. To export all the comments and annotations, go to File->Export->Comments & Annotations.
3. In the Save As field, type in the name of the file and select where you want to save the file
4. If you want to export comments and annotations for certain files selected in the Binder, check the box that says Selected Documents Only, and to organize comments and annotations by document titles, select Include Titles.
6. Click Export
Et voilá! The comments are exported in an RTF file to your chosen location. You’ll see the title of the document and inline annotations appear below it in the same typeface as the document. Comments are in the same typeface and size that appears in the sidebar.
Exported Inline Annotations and Comments.
And there you have it! With all your inline annotations and comments exported, revising your opus becomes a cinch!