Annotating Documents

Annotations are a way to add additional information to a page of your document. Annotations allow you to work with a Laserfiche document as you would a paper document – for instance, adding sticky notes or highlighting sections of the document – without actually modifying the image. The annotations are applied over the image pages, without changing the underlying page. There are four types of annotations in Laserfiche: stamps, sticky notes, highlights and redactions.

Stamps

A stamp is a small image placed on a page of your document. For instance, you might mark approved documents with a stamp that says "Approved," or stamp "Confidential" on confidential documents. Laserfiche comes with four default stamps: Faxed, Received, Approved and Confidential. You can also create custom stamps tailored to your needs.

To add a stamp

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document to which you want to apply the new stamp.
2. Click on the Stamp button on the toolbar. This will open the Stamp Manager dialog.
3. Click on Add.
4. Click on Import from file and select the stamp.
5. In the Add to list option, select Public Stamp if you want the stamp to be available to all users, Private Stamp if you want to only use the stamp yourself or Quick if you wish to create it as a single-use stamp.
6. Click Open. To apply a stamp to a document

To remove a stamp

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document from which you want to remove a stamp.
2. Navigate to the page from which you wish to remove the stamp.
3. Right-click the stamp and click on Delete.

Sticky notes

Sticky notes are small text notes you can apply to pages of a document, just as you would attach a physical note to a paper document. Unlike physical notes, however, the text in Laserfiche sticky notes can be searched. Sticky notes are placed on a specific part of the page. For instance, if you want to comment on a particular paragraph, you can place the sticky note next to that paragraph.

To apply a sticky note

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document to which you want to add a sticky note.
2. Navigate to the appropriate page.
3. Click on the Sticky Note button on the toolbar.
4. Click on the image to place the sticky note. The Sticky Note dialog will open.
5. Type your note in the box.
6. Click the red X in the upper right-hand corner of the sticky note to close it and save the text.

To remove a sticky note

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document from which you want to remove a sticky note.
2. Navigate to the page from which you wish to remove the sticky note.
3. Right-click the sticky note and click on Delete.

Highlights

You can emphasize or set off certain sections of a document you are working with by applying a highlight to the image. A highlight is a colored overlay of the image; it does not obscure the image.

To highlight your image or text

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document to which you want to add a highlight.
2. Navigate to the appropriate page.
3. Click on the Highlight button on the toolbar.
4. Click and drag on the image to draw a box around the section of the image you want to highlight, or select the text in the text pane that you want to highlight.

To remove a highlight

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document from which you want to remove a highlight.
2. Navigate to the appropriate page.
3. Select the highlight by clicking on it.
4. Right-click the highlight and click on Delete. 

Redactions

You can redact a portion of an image or text. Once an image is redacted, only users with the See-Through Redactions right for that document can see the text. Other users will see an opaque black box.  

To redact your image or text

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document to which you want to add a redaction.
2. Navigate to the appropriate page.
3. Click the Redaction button on the toolbar.
4. Click and drag on the image to draw a box around the section of the image you want to redact.

To remove a redaction

1. In the Laserfiche Client, open the document from which you want to remove a highlight.
2. Navigate to the appropriate page.
3. Select the redaction by clicking on it.
4. Right-click the redaction and click on Delete.

Linking Text and Image Annotations

In many cases, when you are highlighting or redacting text in a Laserfiche document, you will want to apply the annotation both on the image and in the text part of the document. In the case of redaction, it ensures that the information is redacted everywhere it might be seen by people who don't have the rights to see it.

Redacting the text part of the document is also the only way to ensure that the redacted segment will not be searchable in Laserfiche, and that it will not be searchable if the document is exported as a PDF. You might also want sections of text that are highlighted on the image to be highlighted in the text portion, and vice versa.

By default, if you apply a redaction or highlight to the text portion of the document, Laserfiche automatically applies the annotation to the image as well. This is called a linked annotation, and it allows you to redact both text and images in one step.