Live annotation


A useful annotate utility is supplied with UPDD V6 to annotate on top of a 'live' desktop.

This can be useful anytime you need to annotate over a desktop, such as during conferences, lectures, classrooms, exhibitions, TV studios (with live video!).

This utility, if installed, can be invoked from the UPDD Daemon program by selecting the Annotate option or directly from the Utilities folder under MacOS or the UPDD application folder under Windows. If the Annotate option is missing it implies the utility is not installed.

When invoked the main control dialog is shown: (vertically or horizontally)


Control dialog with all controls  
 or 
Control dialog with minimal controls

The function of the controls are as follows:


Use this area to click and drag the control dialog to the required position. Double click toggles the layout between vertical and horizontal.
  The following entry has three icons to show the three possible annotate states, annotate off; annotate inking only, annotate inking and touch. Click on the icon to cycle through the three states.

Indicates inking only is enabled.  In this mode only pen inking on the desktop is possible.  Single point touches will result in a small dot being drawn at the point of touch.
Indicates inking and touch is enabled.  In this mode stylus movement will result in inking. Single tap and press actions control the mouse. A tap will generate a click and a press will result in pen down to allow drag function. Drag is possible once the blue circle drawing is complete.  Note - the touches are being handled by the annotate application, not the driver or gestures (under MacOS) so implements very basic touch functions, click or drag, whilst annotating on the desktop.
For this function to work in macOS UPDD Annotate must be granted permission in Security & Privacy, Accessibility:


Indicates annotation is disabled.   The annotate dialog remains on the desktop and any previous touch support is reactivated.
   

Indicates the current pen colour or rubber size, small or large.
Select to change the colour and drawing transparency or the rubber size.
Multicolour options give a different colour per active stylus

   

 Select to change the pen width. Move slider or click on the line to adjust the width.

   

Select to change the control dialog transparency. Move slider or click on the slider to adjust the transparency.

   

Clear the onscreen drawing.
   
Screen capture of all monitors.  In this example the screens of a dual monitor system are captured. Path and file names are briefly displayed during the capture:

   
Undo previous drawing.  Individual drawings are held in an cyclic array storing the last 50 drawings.  This option removes the previous drawing in the array.
   
Redo previous drawing. Individual drawings are held in an cyclic array storing the last 50 drawings.  This option redraws the next drawing in the array.
   

Create a new control dialog.  Useful if you have a large whiteboard / touch screen and would like more than one control dialog, say on either side.
   

Remove the control dialog from the desktop.
   
  Toggle between full and minimal dialog format. The small format can be used once pen colour and width has been established to minimise desktop real-estate

Annotate settings

The following settings are held in the UPDD settings file and can be accessed using the command line interface if required:

Setting Description 
annotate_enabled  Indicates if the drawing is enabled or disabled
 annotate_current_color Holds the current colour in the format #rrggbb, e.g. #ff806c
 annotate_current_alpha Current line transparency
 annotate_current_line_width Current line width
 annotate_palette_ids Contains a comma separated list of ids for windows that are on the screen.
 annotate_window_alpha_N Dialog transparency where N is an integer for the id of the window.
 annotate_window_position_N Dialog position where N is an integer for the id of the window.
 annotate_window_orientation_N Vertical or horizontal where N is an integer for the id of the window.
 annotate_window_collapsed_N Small dialog or 0 large dialog where N is an integer for the id of the window.
 annotate_capture_path Path to where to save screenshots. Defaults to the user’s default image folder
 annotate_mouse_enabled When true, tap and press gestures control the mouse. When false, all touches cause paint strokes regardless of what kind of gesture they are.
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