How to annotate PDF articles collaboratively in Google Drive

Body

Steps

Setup

  1. Upload your PDF article to Google drive
    1. We suggest creating a dedicated folder in your Google Drive for each course
  2. Share the PDF with your students. Option 1 or Option 3 on this guide page (Using Google Drive in Canvas) will work
  3. Increase permissions for your students to "Commenter"
    1. Open the Share settings
    2. Depending on how you have shared your document, you may change all users to Commenter status at once (Under General Access) or individually, by students' names, as they access the document from Canvas for the first time.

Annotating the Document

  1. To create a comment, highlight document text and click the Comment button
    1. The comment button can be found in the top toolbar, and a smaller version will also appear near the right margin of the document
      A paragraph of text, with the short phrase "other adventurers (played by friends)" highlighted, and to the immediate right the Google Drive comment button circled in red.

      The toolbar of a PDF being displayed in Google Drive, with the Comment button circled in red approximately in the middle of the row of options
       
    2. Your comment will automatically include your name and the date it was entered
  2. Click on any existing comment to reply to it in the same thread

Troubleshooting

Students can't see a "Comment" button?

Revisit Setup step 3 above, to make sure they have Commenter access.

Resolved comments aren't visible?

You can view all comments (even ones that have been "Resolved" and therefore hidden) from the menu. The steps to make them visible again are below:

  1. View
  2. Comments
  3. Show all Comments

Details

Details

Article ID: 22197
Created
Fri 9/11/26 4:34 PM
Modified
Tue 9/15/26 9:20 AM