Using SyncSketch Comments

Learn about the advanced features of comments in SyncSketch: Attachments, deep links, replies and more

Text annotations are called Notes or Comments in SyncSketch, and are often an essential component of the SyncSketch workflow.  

Hiding and showing the comment pane

When comments are not being used, the Notes panel is often hidden to recover the screen space for video. Click on the speech balloon icon in the upper right to hide or show comments:

Clicking a comment will jump you (and any synced Reviewers) to the exact frame and/or 3D camera angle where the comment was made.

Creating Comments

Comments that are specific to the exact framing you're looking at can be added using the Commenting box in the lower right.

If you don't see this box, it can be revealed by opening the Note Panel (see above), typing the C key, or clicking the green Comment balloon button at the lower right:

Entering text into this box and hitting Enter or the clicking Submit will create a comment.  The comment is added to the list of comments in the Comment pane, sorted by which frame number it's associated with.

Note:  The comment will be associated with the frame or camera position that is being displayed when you click Submit. This means that if the 3D camera angle or the timeline playhead is moved to a new location before you press Submit, the comment will no longer be applied to the original location.

Comment types

Frame Notes

Typically, comments made in SyncSketch are meant to be applicable to a specific framing (video frame or camera position).  By default, comments will be attached to (associated with) the frame or camera view that is visible when you submit the comment.  

Clicking an existing Frame Note will reset the Review Player to the framing from when that note was created.  It will make the note "active" (indicated by a green bar along its left edge).  It will also reveal a text box for adding replies.

General Notes

Unchecking the Frame checkbox in the Commenting box makes your next comment a General comment, rather than framing-specific.  A General Comment applies to the current media item as a whole.  The Frame comment is the more typical comment.  

General comments will appear at the top of the Comment pane, and Frame comments will be sorted by frame number.

For 3D models without animation, all notes are considered General notes, but they will still restore the camera framing from when the Note was created.

Sketch Notes

Sketch notes are created automatically when adding a sketch to a 3D media item.  They are pre-filled with the word "Sketch".  These can be thought of as "bookmarks", allowing you to return to the exact 3D framing that was visible when the corresponding sketch was created. These Sketch Notes are a necessity because it would otherwise be very difficult to return to the exact framing that will display that sketch later.

While these look and, to a degree, behave like notes, they are not ordinary Comments.  Text modifications will not always yield expected results in, for example, CSV downloads of comments. Best practice in general is to not change these notes, apart from marking them as resolved.  Replying to notes can work, but again can occasionally yield unexpected results and is not advised.  For best results create a separate, conventional comment after restoring the framing by clicking on the Sketch Note.

Formatting Comments

Control-Enter will insert a new line without committing the comment.

Currently the comments do not support styling using rich text, HTML or Markdown.  You can work around this limitation by using an online Unicode text formatter such as the Babelstone Unicode Text Styler, copying the results and pasting them into the comment box.

Additionally you can @mention a colleague, which distinctly formats their name.  See below for details.

Other features

Resolving Notes

To help keep track of remaining issues, you can mark notes as Resolved, optionally hiding them in the Notes panel.  See Resolving Notes for further details.

Editing Notes and Replies

You can edit the text in notes and replies by selecting the item from the action menu to the upper right of the note and selecting Edit Note or by clicking the pencil icon. Project members and administrators can edit one another's notes, but guests cannot.

Deleting Notes

You can delete Notes and replies using the action menu in the upper right of the Note or reply:

Collapsing Threads

A Note together with its replies is a "thread".  It is occasionally helpful to have long threads automatically collapse when the Note is not active (selected). To do so, make sure Collapse threads is enabled. It can be found under the Settings menu button  at the top of the Notes panel:

Note Links

Under the Share Link dropdown at the top of the Review Player you can get a Frame Link, which when opened, will open the SyncSketch review player to the review, media item and exact frame.  You can get even more deep-linking precision with Note Links.  When selecting Copy Link from a note's Action menu, it will do the same as a Frame link, but it will highlight that specific note, which is useful if there are several notes at the same framing point.

Note Attachments

You can select existing Notes and Replies and attach image files for reference.  For further details, see Attaching Images to Comments.

@mentions

While adding a new comment, typing the @ key will reveal a list of workspace members. Selecting one will @mention them, highlighting their name in the finished comment and triggering a "you were mentioned" notification email to them. 

Timeline Markers

When you type a comment or draw a sketch, a marker will be added in the Timeline at that frame's position. You can jump from note to note using the  controls in the lower left, or using the up and down arrow keys when not entering a comment or reply.  This is useful when there are sketches or if the Notes Panel is hidden.

Comment badges

The number of annotations (both comments and sketches) that have been added to an item appears in a badge in the Shot Item List at the left.

(This pane may also be hidden; press the H key once or twice to ensure that it is open.)

The badge will turn gold when at least one annotation was added recently. 

The number of comments is shown as a badge over the Note Panel speech-balloon icon in the upper right.

Sorting by Date

It is sometimes useful to sort notes in the Notes panel so that the newest Notes appear at the top.  This setting can be found under the Settings menu button  at the top of the Notes panel:

All Notes vs. Current Review Only

You can choose to display notes that were created in the context of the current review only. But there are times when it's important to see all notes created for a media item.  The most common example is when comments were added from the Media Tab in a Quick Review, which were made in a separate review context.  It may also be useful to aggregate all the notes added in every instance of a media item that has been added to multiple reviews (See Copying Items Into Other Reviews for further details).

To control this, use the dropdown at the top of the Notes panel:

For security reasons, external collaborators are only permitted to see notes made in that specific review context:

 

 

Filtering You can filter the list of comments to display only those by a specific author or containing a specific word using the Magnifying Glass icon at the top of the comment pane.  Then begin typing your search criteria. (See left)   Comment attachments You can attach images to comments and reviewers can view them superimposed over the video.  See Attaching Images to Comments for details. Deep linking You can get a URL that you can share with others that will load SyncSketch directly to the exact Project, Review, Item, frame and Comment, even if there is more than one comment on the frame.  To copy this "deep linked" URL, use link icon in the comment: Learn more at Deep Linking.

 

Downloading

You can download Notes as formatted PDFs or as a CSV spreadsheet that you can use to match back to an editorial system.  To access these, use the download icon in the upper left:

Formatted PDF: 

Learn more about PDF downloads at Downloading a PDF Summary

Comma-Separated Values

The CSV file has the following fields:

Project Name

Review Name

Item SortOrder

Item Name

Item Status

Date Created

Frame Number

Timecode

Comment

Email

Full Name

Link

Note Status

 

Notifications

Users can be notified via email when comments are added to Reviews. Each user can individually set their notification preferences.  See Notification Settings for details.