OR

stay logged in   forgot password?

Please wait... Blue_on_grey_spinner

Image Commenting

Note: We suggest using the default 2-pane view when working with images; if you're in 1-pane view the image could move off the screen as you scroll down to read all the comments.

  1. Small Images — No Toolbar

  2. Large Images — Commenting Toolbar

  3. Notes


  1. Small Images — No Toolbar

  2. An image less than 50x50 pixels won't have a commenting toolbars; they're too small to have clearly defined areas, and big toolbars would be visually distracting. Instead, you comment on it by double clicking the image (or the paragraph number) to make a Whole Image comment; if the comment does relate to a specific area, just refer to that area at the very beginning of the Summary of Comment field.

    Small images include both:

    • Images less than 50x50 pixels that are by themselves in a NowComment paragraph. Note— images often increase in pixel dimensions when inserted into Microsoft Word before being uploaded to NowComment, which may cause the toolbar to display.
    • Images that are “inline” with text in a paragraph, like the following “plus sign” icon: inline image

  3. Large Images — Commenting Toolbar



  4. An image larger than 50x50 pixels can have Whole Image comments too. When you comment on a larger image with the toolbar, however, you can also indicate a specific area of the image you're commenting on, so that afterwards anyone looking at the image can immediately see that that area has a comment (in-context commenting!).

    A commented area of an image is shaded in a yellow box with a comment balloon in the upper right hand corner showing how many comments there are. For example, this portion of the Mona Lisa painting has two comments about her eyes and one comment about her ear:

    Mona Lisa example of image areas

    Areas can be nested, i.e. on a map a city can be inside a state/province which can itself be inside a country, etc.… and you can easily keep each conversation separate from the others! In the map below, the state of New York is its own area but is also part of the larger East Coast USA area (each area has one comment):


    nesting example NY State inside East Coast USA area

    The comments themselves appear in the same comments area where text comments appear.

    Large images will have a light blue Image Commenting Toolbar (unless disabled by the Document Owner, see below) with these four elements:

    Image Commenting Toolbar

    1. Comment & Area Count
    2. This photo of the Parthenon in Athens has 2 area shown, with one comment on each area, so it reads "2 comments on 2 areas". If the Mona Lisa also had 5 Whole Image comments (in addition to the 2 comments on the eyes and 1 on the ear) the toolbar would read "8 comments on 2 areas" ( Whole Image comments are considered area comments). An image that only had 3 Whole Image comments would read "3 comments on 0 areas".


    3. “add comment”
    4. This pulldown menu provides one action link at the bottom, to start a Whole Image conversation (in addition to the two methods described above for Whole Image comments on small images) and three hints for making other kinds of comments:


      add comment drop down menu
      • Join an existing conversation — click the “Reply” button of a right pane comment (like regular text comments)
      • Start a new conversation on an existing area — Double click a highlighted area or its comment balloon (mobile users can click the icon in the right pane instead)
      • Define and comment on a new area — Click your mouse on a corner of the area you want to define (trackpad users should hold down either the right or left trackpad button... this feature is not yet available on mobile devices), then hold-and-drag to draw the box. You'll get a pop-up window with 3 fields:
        • Area Name
        • Comment (text comments call this field “Summary of Comment”)
        • Additional Thoughts (text comments call this field “Full Comment”)

      • change display
      • Areas and Comment Balloons show by default, but this option lets you hide either or both if you want a cleaner look at the original image.


      • help
      • For additional information beyond what's in the “Add Comment” click this “Help” link to go to https://nowcomment.com/help/image_commenting


  5. Notes

    • Whole paragraph images, both small or large, get paragraph numbers for easy reference; inline images do not.
    • In 2-pane view, if the left pane is so narrow that it can't display the full width of the toolbar (rare except in mobile devices), then only the leftmost part of the toolbar will be visible until you move the horizontal scroll bar under the left pane to the right to see the rest of the left pane.
    • The Document Owner can turn off the display of all the Image Commenting Toolbars for a document's images if the toolbars would detract from the appearance or page layout of the document (not just for certain images in the document). When uploading your document, choose:

      turn off Image Commenting toolbar

      from the “Advanced Features” menu… or later turn the display on and off as desired by editing Document Properties.


Last updated: February 10, 2017

© Copyright 2021, Paul Allison.
"NowComment" is a registered trademark of Paul Allison. All rights reserved.

Back to Top

Quickstart: Commenting and Sharing

How to Comment
  • Click icons on the left to see existing comments.
  • Desktop/Laptop: double-click any text, highlight a section of an image, or add a comment while a video is playing to start a new conversation.
    Tablet/Phone: single click then click on the "Start One" link (look right or below).
  • Click "Reply" on a comment to join the conversation.
How to Share Documents
  1. "Upload" a new document.
  2. "Invite" others to it.

Logging in, please wait... Blue_on_grey_spinner