iAnnotate 4 — PDFs & more 4+

Dropping a long overdue review to endorse this app for grading and reviewing student work. No paper to carry around and cloud integration makes me able to make progress virtually anywhere. I use it in a university setting where all submissions can be made electronically and saved to my preferred location for review. Auto-converts word docs to pdfs for the folks that cannot follow directions and submit their assignments as pdfs - big time-saver compared to early versions that didn't do this if my memory is correct.

I primarily make annotations using an Apple Pencil, the highlight tool, and the text entry box - my handwriting isn't great. The highlight tool can be wonky sometimes - especially when trying to highlight content across pages or in tables.

Students sometimes try to access annotated documents on mobile devices and may not see all feedback. I just have to train them to look for both hand-written comments and feedback boxes. Preview on Mac or acrobat reader on windows machines both display complete annotations.

Thank you for the great review! We love hearing all the details on how you use iAnnotate to make your workflow more efficient. Much appreciated! Happy iAnnotating!

This was a terrific app when I bought it in 2010. It’s still an amazing tool for marking up PDFs and I do all my grading on it. But I am redoing my review because the makers have not made updates for quite some time, much needed features that are now feasible with all the innovations that have come to the iPad and iOS. First off, I’ve been requesting this for years: the ability to flatten multiple documents at once. When I grade 30 papers, the inability to check all the boxes of documents I wanted flattened and then hit flatten adds a great deal of time to my work. There is still a lack of continuity across devices (or worse, when purchasing a new iPad) that will allow the toolbars I created on one device to carry over to another. It’s a major headache. The last major update we got was integration with the Apple Pencil, which is wonderful, but the pencil can do more now and the app makers have not taken advantage of this. It would also be nice to have two instances of the app (not just two documents at once) open at once to take advantage of using an external display for an extended desktop. Better use of iPad OS’s file system would be great too. It takes me too many clicks to move around between subfolders and between OneDrive, DropBox, etc. It’s quite possible better apps now exist, taking advantage of technological change, but I would much rather stick with iAnnotate since it has served me well for almost 15 years.

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to update your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about the frustration caused by the lack of updates.

Please reach out to us at help@folia.com with any additional information. We do care about your user experience and our team is hard at working planning the future. Our team is here to help, and your input is incredibly valuable in helping us improve the app experience. Thanks again for your time.

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Thanks so much for writing in with your feedback! Those are great suggestions and we would love to hear more about them. Please write into support@branchfire.com so we can ask a couple more questions.

I have used an app on iOS for nearly a decade. It allows me to store lots of journal articles and the ability to annotate them. I had a lengthy dissertation to review and return those comments to the author. After getting through more than 100 pages, I tried to export them and open the commented article in Acrobat only to find that the comments could not be viewed. His dissertation advisor recommended iAnnotate. Best $10 app I have purchased in many years.

The tools are great. I like that the stylus gives a fine line, it's like writing on the real paper. Highlight does well, open the note to type. When I exported to Acrobat everything was just where it should be.

What don't I like? I have numerous toolbars on the side, I don't know how to close them. It is a little clumsy to move comments around. Grabbing and moving takes a little patience. Nonetheless it works well. I heartily recommend this app.

Wow! We're so happy that you're enjoying the app! If you have any questions about how to navigate the app, please reach out to support@branchfire.com. We're more than happy to answer any questions, or share any tips!