The Apply Annotations to Document action adds annotations to Documents: shapes, text, images and stamps, sticky notes, data, and signature markers. Use it to stamp an invoice "PAID", put a watermark on every page of a draft, or mark where a signer should sign. The annotations are added on top of any the Document already has. Nothing already on the Document is removed or changed.


Choosing the Documents

Active Document - When this is on, the action annotates the Active Document. A workflow has an Active Document when it is routing a Document rather than a Record. An Add-In has one when it runs against the Document open in the viewer, or against each checked Document if the Add-In is set up that way. When there is no Active Document, the action falls back to the Documents described under Find Documents. When this is off, the action always uses Find Documents.

All Documents - Controls how many of the Documents found by Find Documents are annotated. When it is off, only the first matching Document is annotated. When it is on, every matching Document is annotated. This setting is not used when the action annotates the Active Document.

Find Documents - The Category, SubCategory, and Name of the Documents to annotate, searched within the active Record. Leave any of the three blank to match any value. These fields can contain static values or variables.


Only Documents that can be shown in the viewer are annotated. Other file types are skipped.


Adding annotations

The Annotations list shows each annotation the action will apply, with its page, type, and position. Click Add Annotation to add one, or click an annotation in the list to change it. Each annotation can be copied, deleted, or dragged to a new place in the list. Every annotation in the list is applied to every Document the action annotates.


Adding or changing an annotation opens the Annotation Properties window, which has three tabs.


Basic

Page Number - The page to put the annotation on, starting at 1. If the Document has fewer pages, the annotation is saved but does not show anywhere, because the page it belongs to does not exist.

Annotation Type - What to draw. The list includes lines, arrows, rectangles, ellipses, check marks, X marks, and stars; Text; Image / Stamp; Sticky Note; Data; and the signature markers, such as Sign Here, Initial Here, and Date Signed.

Color - The color of the annotation.

Coordinates - Where to draw the annotation, in pixels: Left and Top set the upper-left corner, and Width and Height set the size of the box that holds it. Not shown for the Data type.

Name / Value - Shown only for the Data type, in place of Coordinates. A Data annotation stores a name and a value on the page rather than drawing a shape. Both fields can contain static values or variables.

Text - Shown for the Text and Sticky Note types. The text to put on the Document. It can contain variables, so PAID [DATE] shows the date the action ran.

Font Name - Shown for the Text and Sticky Note types. The font to use for the text.

Font Size - Shown for the Text and Sticky Note types. The size of the text. This is not an exact font size: the same setting looks larger on a small image and smaller on a large one, so try a few sizes on a sample of the Documents you expect. This field can contain a variable.

Stamp - Shown for the Image / Stamp type when your system has stamps set up. Choose one of your stamps, Find Stamp by Name to pick a stamp by name when the action runs, or Use Standard Image to give an image address instead. If the action cannot find the stamp it is looking for, it stops with a "Stamp not found" error.

Stamp Name - Shown when Stamp is set to Find Stamp by Name. The name of the stamp to use. It can contain a variable, so the stamp can be chosen from Record data.

Image URL - Shown for the Image / Stamp type when no stamp is chosen. The address of the image to draw. It can contain a variable. If Width or Height is 0, the image's own size is used.


Advanced

Opacity - How solid the annotation looks, from Opacity 1 (almost invisible) to Opacity 100 (fully solid, nothing behind it shows through).

Line Width - The thickness of the lines drawn, from 1 to 20. This affects lines, arrows, rectangles and ellipses that are not filled, stars, and check marks. It has no effect on text.


Dynamic Coordinates

Use these fields when the page or position is not known until the action runs. Each one that is filled in replaces the matching value on the Basic tab. They can contain static values or variables.

Dynamic Page, Dynamic Left, Dynamic Top, Dynamic Width, Dynamic Height - The page, position, and size to use in place of Page Number and Coordinates.


For example, [DOCUMENTPAGES] in Dynamic Page puts the annotation on the last page of the Document. Variables in these fields are filled in from the Active Document, so this works when the action annotates the Active Document. When it annotates Documents found by Find Documents, each Document gets the same values.


Importing annotations from a Document

Getting the coordinates right by typing numbers can take several tries. It is quicker to draw the annotations by hand on a sample Document in the viewer and save them, then click Import next to Add Annotation and enter that Document's ID. Every annotation on the sample Document is added to the list with its page, type, position, size, color, opacity, line width, text, and font already set.


Import brings in everything on the sample Document, so use a Document that carries only the annotations you want. Images and stamps come in without their picture; open each one after importing and set its Stamp or Image URL.


Tips

  • The action adds annotations every time it runs. If the same Document can pass through the action twice, it gets the annotations twice, so set up the workflow or Add-In so the action runs only once for each Document.
  • To put a signature saved on the Record onto the Document, set Annotation Type to Image / Stamp, set Stamp to Use Standard Image if your system has stamps, and put the signature field's name in brackets in Image URL, for example [SignatureField]. The field holds the signature image itself, so the action draws it straight onto the page. Set Width and Height to the size you want the signature to appear.
  • Large text with a low Opacity, such as Opacity 50, makes a good watermark.
  • Annotations are drawn over the Document, not into it. To make them a permanent part of a PDF, follow this action with a Burn Annotations into PDF action.
  • All Category, SubCategory, and Name fields can contain static values or variables.