Quick Start: How to Use AVAnnotate

Step 1: Log into AVAnnotate with your GitHub credentials

Log into AVAnnotate now

Sign in with your GitHub credentials, or create a new GitHub account by providing a username, email address, and password.

Step 2: Create a New Project

Select + Add and input information about the new project, including Title Description Language ` Project Slug and Project Authors and Collaborators`. For more information, see Projects.

Step 3: Locate a URL or IIIF Manifest for your AV file

AVAnnotate does not store AV or image files. AVAnnoate references AV and image files through URLs or IIIF manifests.

Step 3: Add an Event

An “Event” in AVAnnotate can comprise single or multiple AV files and single or multiple sets of annotations. AVAnnotate will create or ingest a IIIF manifest for each event. Event pages can be auto-generated or customized by the user.

Select + Add and input information about the new event, including the event Label Item Type AV label URL Duration Description and Citation. For more information, see Events.

Step 4: Add tags

“Tags” are labels used in the published project to index, organize, and discover topics in the annotations. Categories can be used to organize the tags in groups. For more information, see Tags.

Step 5: Add annotations and timestamps

Timestamped annotations are added to each AV file. Annotations and timestamps are user-created and correspond to a point or range in the audio or video. Annotations contain information about the media that might include a transcript; captions; information about formal features of the media, like shot sequence, volume, or lighting; historical or cultural context; environmental noises such as fans or car horns; or conceptual notes or themes. Annotations often include tags for indexing. For more information, see Annotations.

Step 6: Customize pages to build context

Users can create auto-generated pages for each event as well as design custom pages that include text, whole events, or AV clips with or without associated annotations, event or AV clip comparisons, and images (via URL links). What appears on these pages is entirely up to the user; users may add a page that includes an introduction or conclusion to the project; build separate sections of an accompanying analytical essay; add context or pedagogical implications for events and annotations; explain the annotation choices made in the project; etc. For more information, see Pages.

Step 6: Share your AVAnnotate project with the world!

Refer to Helpful Tips before getting started and Spreadsheet Templates for bulk uploading using spreadsheets.