The Hypothes.is annotation tool is a third-party technology freely available to anyone as a browser extension (Chrome) or a browser bookmarklet. The Collaborative Anthropology Network includes the Hypothes.is tool in many of its pages for your convenience. However, you still need to create a user account with hypothes.is in order to save your annotations. The wp-signup.php process is very easy, go to hypothes.is/signup choose a username, enter your email address, and create a password. Click Sign Up and you’ll receive a confirmation email shortly–check your spam inbox if you don’t see the email.
Whether you installed the browser extension, browser bookmarklet, or are using the pre-installed tool in the Collaborative Anthropology Network, you will see the tool as a slide-out widget on the righthand side of the browser window. If you do not see the widget, you may need to activate it by clicking on the hypothes.is icon in your browsers toolbar. You can open and close the widget by clicking on the “Annotation Sidebar” icon (the greater than symbol) on the left hand side of the widget.
Creating Annotations (and Highlights) #
In the hypothes.is widget, log in to Hypothes.is and then within the web page use your cursor to highlight any text. The annotation tool will pop up, enabling you to choose whether to create an annotation or a highlight of the selected text. Annotations include an option to make a note or assign tags, while highlights only save the text itself.
Saving Annotations #
In the “Select Group” drop down menu in the upper left hand corner of the Hypothes.is widget you can select whether to post the annotation publicly, meaning it will be accessible in Hypothes.is searches and to visitors of the web page that have the Hypothes.is tool activated, or to post it to a private group (you can create a private group in the same drop down menu if necessary). Whether you choose to save your annotation as public or in a group, you can choose “Only Me” in the submit button dropdown at the bottom of the widget window to make it a private annotation.
Read more about who can see your annotations
Creating Page Notes #
You can also create public or private page notes to make document-level annotations not associated with any specific text on the page. To do so, click on the “Create New Page Note” icon on the left hand side of the widget (the document with a folded corner). Similar to annotations, you can make a note and assign tags to the page. You can also save page notes to the public or a private group, and assign it for “Only Me.”
Reviewing Your Saved Annotations #
You can review your saved widgets in 3 ways:
- In the original source: If you return to any webpage or document with existing annotations and activate the Hypothes.is widget, you will see all of your own annotations, along with any annotations shared publicly by other people. To turn off and on the highlights in the web page itself, click on the “Show Highlights” icon (the eye) on the lefthand side of the widget.
- In your account at the Hypothes.is website: You can also click on your username in the Hypothesis widget to visit your Hypothes.is profile where all of your annotations are stored. Your profile is a dashboard where you can find a list of all your annotated documents with the latest at the top, and search them by keywords, tag, group, or URL. In your Profile Dashboard, click on any document in the list to see details, including all annotations, highlighted text, tags, annotators, and links to visit the original source and annotations in context, or to share annotations via social media, email, or elsewhere.
- In your user profile at the Collaborative Anthropology Network: The Annotations Dashboard of the Collaborative Anthropology Network integrates with the Hypothes.is Profile Dashboard and adds some further enhancements for easier navigation and exploration of your public and private annotations. However, you will first need to add your Hypothes.is API key to integrate your annotations with your Collaborative Anthropology Network account. Don’t worry, this is very easy. Learn how in the next section!
Read more about using Hypothes.is by visiting their documentation
