Creating an annotation definition file

Annotation data is stored in a separate file from the document. You can create or edit an annotation definition file to apply annotations consistently to your documents.

About this task

The annotations file is an ASCII text file with the optional .ant extension. Annotations are defined through a set of mandatory and optional properties, and each property must be defined on a separate line.

Typically, the file is not case-sensitive except for where text properties are defined. Blank lines are ignored.

The start of an annotation definition is denoted by an opening bracket. This bracket is followed by a type identifier that indicates the kind of annotation that is being defined. In the following example, the type identifier is ARROW. The identifier is ended by a right square bracket. A carriage-return, a linefeed, or a carriage-return and linefeed then indicate the end of the line. The end of an annotation definition is denoted by the start of another annotation definition or by the end of the file.
[ARROW]
X1 = 535
Y1 = 277
X2 = 89
Y2 = 138
PAGE = 1
EDIT = 1
COLOR = 255, 0, 0

Procedure

To create the annotations definition file:

  1. Use a text editor to create a new text file with the .ant extension or open an existing annotation definition file.
    Tip: You can begin by drawing the annotations in the viewer, and then modify the annotation definition file.
  2. Add a definition section for each annotation and edit the properties as needed.
  3. Save the file to the document repository.
  4. To display the annotations definition file in a document, set the annotationFile parameter to point to the location of the .ant file.