A good way to learn how NowComment works is to practice on this short document.

First, a sample paragraph:

Our love of all things furry has deep roots in human evolution and may have even shaped how our ancestors developed language and other tools of civilization. "If you have a dog that can hunt, you don't need to turn into a fast-moving animal with sharp teeth," Shipman said. "If you're storing grains [known to attract rodents], you don't need to evolve claws and an intense focus to kill rats, [because] you have cats that do it for you." http://www.livescience.com/6818-caring-animals-shaped-human-evolution.html

How to Make Comments on Text (left pane)

1. In the quote above, click on any of the words in the first sentence; when the window pops up, fill in both the Summary of Comment and Full Comment fields of the popup form (leaving your comment as Sentence level). After you click the pop-up’s Start Conversation button your comment will show in the right window.
2. There's a sample comment on Sentence #2 in the right pane; you can respond to it by clicking its Reply button. [Note that it's a comment from a dog, so you won't get a reply!]
3. Add a comment about the whole quote by double clicking any word in the paragraph, then choose the “Paragraph” level radio button in the pop-up. To make a very short comment just fill in the “Summary of Comment” field and leave the “Full Comment” field blank when you click "Start Conversation".

How to Comment on Videos and Images (left pane)

Double click on the paragraph numbers by the right margin of the left pane, either the "10" for the video:

or the "12" for this photograph:

Making a General Document Comment

Double click on any text, image, or video; in the pop-up choose the “Document” radio button. This is used for comments not tied to any particular passage or image (e.g. historical background, writing style, related works).

Inviting Someone to your Document

When you want others to read and comment on a document click the "Invite" link on the top (light blue) toolbar.

Links on the Dark Blue Toolbar

• My Library take you to your list of documents
• Groups takes you to the same page but highlights the list of groups (if any) you're a member of
• Upload let's you add a new document to be commented/annotated/discussed
• Public Documents are documents open to the entire internet (and indexed by search engines). More common are Private Documents that only people you invite can read and comment on
• Help has online documentation (with videos and text overviews) and an FAQ

Some Features on the Light Blue Toolbar

• Print Document (printer icon)
• Document information (“i” icon)
• Highlighting tool gives you 5 public and 5 private highlighting colors. Each can have a customizable meaning. more information
• Download Original Document (and other features) is on the “More” drop down menu
• Set Properties/Access Dates, also on that same drop down, lets you control when people can see and comment on the document (and when they can see others' comments). more information
• Combined radio button shows the document and all comments in a single window
• Summaries lets you skim comments by displaying just the “Summary of Comment” for each comment
• Sorted lets you sort comments by name, date/time, or tag
• Updates will email you each time some comments on this document

We think you'll enjoy using NowComment. For more tips and demo videos see our Help page.