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Annotations

Annotations let visitors draw directly on the app background, or on individual widgets, with an infrared pen or a finger. The pens supplied with MT Showcase have a touch-activated infrared LED in their tip.

Background annotation or widget annotation?

You can enable annotations on the app's background, on individual widgets, or both:

  • Background annotations are drawn on the background. They never cover the widgets in the app's Main layer: where they overlap, they are shown behind the widgets. Visitors cannot change their color.
  • Widget annotations belong to one widget and move with it. A stroke that starts on the widget can extend over the background. With a toolbar, visitors can change the color with the Annotation color button and erase with the Annotation clear button.

Enable background annotations

  1. Click Structures and select the app's structure.
  2. On the Background layer row, open the … menu and choose Add Widget, then select Annotation.

  3. Make sure Annotation is the first widget in the Background layer. Drag it to the top of the layer if needed.

    Important

    Background annotations only work when the Annotation widget is at the top of the Background layer.

  4. Select the Annotation widget and set its attributes (see Annotation settings).

Enable annotations on a widget

  1. In the structure tree, select the widget, such as an Image viewer, and expand it.
  2. On its Decorations row, open the … menu and choose Add Widget, then select Annotation.
  3. Select the new Annotation and set its attributes (see Annotation settings).
  4. To let visitors change the color and erase, give the widget a toolbar with an Annotation color button and an Annotation clear button. See Toolbars.

A stroke must start on the widget. It can then extend beyond the widget onto the background, but a stroke that starts on the background cannot continue over the widget.

To enable annotations on every widget in an app, add Annotation to the Decorations in the theme's Widget decorations defaults. See Themes.

Annotation settings

Setting What it does
Use random colors? Gives each stroke a random color. On by default.
Default color The stroke color when Use random colors? is off. White by default. On the background, visitors cannot change it; on a widget, they can with an Annotation color button.
Allow drawing with pens Lets visitors draw with infrared pens. On by default.
Allow drawing with fingers Lets visitors draw with their fingers. Off by default.
Annotation lifetime How long annotations stay before fading away, in seconds. The default is 120 (2 minutes). Set it to 0 and annotations never fade; they stay until erased.

Remove annotations

Annotations can be removed in three ways:

  • Eraser card: visitors place an eraser Codice card face down on the screen and move it over the drawing. See Codice Cards.
  • Annotation lifetime: annotations fade away by themselves after the set time.
  • Annotation clear button (widget annotations only): visitors press and hold the button on the widget's toolbar.