Text annotator

Add styled annotations, comments and definitions to speeches, lyrics and academic papers

Updated 2 months ago to v3.7.2 by Flourish team

How to use this template

What is it for?

Use the “Text annotator” for written content that you want to add definitions, explanations, and notes to. It lets you highlight parts of a text and add annotations with various styling options.

How to get started

  1. Choose a “Text annotator” starting point from the template chooser.

  2. Find the piece of text you would like to annotate and enter it into the Text box in the Text settings panel. TIP: You can add HTML and CSS to enhance your visualization further. Click here to find out more.

  3. Make a note of the annotations you want to add to your text, we will add these in the Data tab.

  4. In the Data tab, add the snippets of text you want to annotate from your chosen piece of writing and bind that to the Text column. Add your annotations into a column next to this and bind that column to  Annotations.

  5. If you want to annotate a specific part of the text that occurs more than once, you can add identifiers in your text. To use identifiers, wrap the text you'd like to annotate in square brackets and write the identifier in curly brackets next to it. Then, in the Data tab, supply the content to display with the word.  For example: [Sam]{sam-annotation}. In the datasheet, you can write "sam-annotation" in the first column and the text to write as the annotation in the second column. TIP: Use identifiers when you have annotation content that you would like to use more than once.

  1. Once you've input your data, back in the Preview tab the text for which you've added annotations will be highlighted and circled, with annotations appearing to the right-hand side of the text.

 

How to style your text and annotations

Now you have your annotations set up, you can change how the text and annotations are styled.

Under Text styling, you can customize the text alignment and how the highlighted text is displayed. 

For Highlight type, there are four options: handdrawn, background, text color, or underline. 

If you choose  handdrawn, you can choose between a few other handdrawn type options for styling your highlighted text. 

Under Annotations styling, you can choose where and when the annotations should display.

There are two Mode options: Side panel displays the annotations to the right-hand side of the text, while Inline blocks places them directly below the part of the text to which they apply.

There are settings to choose whether annotations appear Always or only On click, as well as some font settings. You can also add custom HTML and CSS in the Note content box. 

Under Annotations styling, when you are using Side panel mode there is also the option to set a different mode for mobile devices. Side panel mode is not always optimal for smaller devices, so you may want to use Inline blocks or Overlap panels.

As with our other templates, you can customize your visualization under Layout (such as adding a background image) and you can add headers and footers too.

This section documents API usage specific to this template, so for an introduction we suggest you refer to the generic API documentation instead.

template: @flourish/text-annotator

version: 3

Template data

There are three different formats in which you can supply data to this template. The most convenient for you to use likely depends on the source of your data, as described below.

1. Array of arrays, and a bindings object

You can supply arrays of arrays to opts.data, which might look like:

{
    data: {
        data: [
            [ "DataColumn1Value1", "DataColumn2Value1",
            [ "DataColumn1Value2", "DataColumn2Value2",
            [ "DataColumn1Value3", "DataColumn2Value3",
            ...
        ]
    }
}

where each array of arrays represents the rows in a data sheet.

To tell the API how the values from each column should be associated with the keys that the template is expecting, you must also supply an object attached to opts.bindings. (The meanings of the keys in the bindings object are documented below.) The minimal bindings you can supply for this template are as shown in this example:

{
    template: "@flourish/text-annotator",
    version: "3",
    bindings: {
        data: {
            text: 0, // index of a column in your data
            note: 1, // index of a column in your data
        }
    },
    data: {
        data: [
            [ "DataColumn1Value1", "DataColumn2Value1",
            [ "DataColumn1Value2", "DataColumn2Value2",
            [ "DataColumn1Value3", "DataColumn2Value3",
            ...
        ]
    }
}

All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:

{
    template: "@flourish/text-annotator",
    version: "3",
    bindings: {
        data: {
            text: 0, // index of a column in your data
            note: 1, // index of a column in your data
        }
    },
    data: {
        data: [
            [ "DataColumn1Value1", "DataColumn2Value1",
            [ "DataColumn1Value2", "DataColumn2Value2",
            [ "DataColumn1Value3", "DataColumn2Value3",
            ...
        ]
    }
}

2. Array of objects with arbitrary keys, and a bindings object

This format is most likely useful when you have data from an external source, such as CSV data loaded from d3-dsv. You should supply this attached to the opts.data, which might look like:

{
        data: [
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            ...
        ]
    }

... but with the keys being the column headers from your source data instead. You must also supply an object attached to opts.bindings. The minimal bindings you can supply for this template are as shown in this example:

{
    template: "@flourish/text-annotator",
    version: "3",
    bindings: {
        data: {
            text: "DataHeader1",
            note: "DataHeader2",
        }
    },
    data: {
        data: [
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            ...
        ]
    }
}

All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:

{
    template: "@flourish/text-annotator",
    version: "3",
    bindings: {
        data: {
            text: "DataHeader1",
            note: "DataHeader2",
        }
    },
    data: {
        data: [
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
            ...
        ]
    }
}

(As before, the keys containing "Header" would be replaced by column names from your data source.)

3. Array of objects with template-defined keys

There is an alternative format you can use, which is likely to be easier to use if your data is not from a spreadsheet source. With this alternative format you supply your data to the template as an array of objects, attached to opts.data, where the keys must be those used by the template, as documented below. In this case there is no need to supply a bindings object, since the key names are already those expected by the template. The required properties in the data object are as follows (scroll down for a description of what each property is):

{
    template: "@flourish/text-annotator",
    version: "3",
    data: {
    data: [
        {
            text: ...,
            note: ...
        },
        ...
    ]
},
    ...
}

And the full list of all possible properties is as follows:

{
    template: "@flourish/text-annotator",
    version: "3",
    data: {
    data: [
        {
            text: ...,
            note: ...
        },
        ...
    ]
},
    ...
}

Meanings of the template data keys:

  • data.text: The piece of text you want to highlight. Note that text is case and space sensitive.
  • data.note: The annotation content

Template settings

Options for opts.state.

Text

text html

Text. Fill in the text you want to annotate. In the data sheet you can write which parts of the text should be annoted. If you want to annotate a specific part of the text but that occurs more than once, you can add identifiers in your text. For example, "I'd like to annotate the word [beautiful]{beautiful-annotation}." Then in the data sheet you can write "beautiful-annotation" in the first column and the text to write as annotation in the second column

Text styling

highlight_color color

Highlight color.

layout_align string

Align.

Allowed values:

  • center (fa-align-center)
  • start (fa-align-left)

text_container_width number

Width. Max width of text container

text_font_size number

Font size.

text_font_color color

Text color.

text_font_color_highlighted color

Text color (highlighted).

text_font_color_highlighted_contrast color

Text color (highlighted).

text_highlight_type string

Highlight type.

Allowed values:

  • handdrawn (Handdrawn)
  • background (Background)
  • text_color (Text color)
  • underline (Underline)

text_highlight_handdrawn string

Handdrawn type.

Allowed values:

  • circle (Circle)
  • highlight (Highlight)
  • box (Box)
  • underline (Underline)

highlighted_stroke_end string

Stroke end.

Allowed values:

  • round (Round)
  • (Straight)

highlighted_stroke_amount number

Iterations. Amount of lines to draw

Min: 1

Max: 20

highlighted_stroke_width number

Thickness.

Min: 0.5

Max: 20

Annotation styling

note_type string

Mode.

Allowed values:

  • side-panel (Side panel)
  • inline (Inline blocks)

note_visibility string

Show notes.

Allowed values:

  • always (Always)
  • click (On click)

note_font_size number

Text size.

side_panel_width number

Width. Max width of side panel

note_font_color color

Text color.

note_background_color color

Background color.

note_custom_content html

Note content. Use {{NOTE}} to show the annotation content. Use this setting to add prefixes, suffixes or additional HTML styling to your annotations.

note_mobile_mode string

Mobile mode. Choose where to display the notes on smaller screens

Allowed values:

  • side-panel (Side panel)
  • inline (Inline blocks)
  • overlay (Overlay panel)

Layout

layout.body_font font

Main font. This font will apply to the whole graphic by default. You can optionally change the font for the title, subtitle, footer, etc in the Header and Footer settings panels.

layout.font_color color

Text color. This color will apply to the whole graphic by default, You can optionally change the color for individual text elements, in other settings panels.

layout.background_color_enabled boolean

Color.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

layout.background_image_enabled boolean

Image.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

layout.background_color color

Background color.

layout.background_image_src url

Image URL.

layout.background_image_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • cover (Fill)
  • contain (Fit)
  • auto (Original)
  • 100% 100% (Stretch)

layout.background_image_position string

Position.

Allowed values:

  • top left (Top left)
  • top center (Top center)
  • top right (Top right)
  • center left (Center left)
  • center center (Center)
  • center right (Center right)
  • bottom left (Bottom left)
  • bottom center (Bottom center)
  • bottom right (Bottom right)

layout.max_width_target string

Maximum width. Apply a <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/270-how-to-embed-a-visualization-with-a-maximum-width">maximum width</a> to just the <b>main graphic</b> or <b>everything</b> (main graphic plus header, footer, etc).

Allowed values:

  • none (None)
  • wrapper (Everything)
  • primary (Main graphic)

layout.max_width number

Maximum width. Leave blank to stretch to container width

Min: 50

layout.max_width_align string

Align.

Allowed values:

  • left (fa-align-left)
  • center (fa-align-center)
  • right (fa-align-right)

layout.layout_order string

Layout order.

Allowed values:

  • stack-default (Header – controls – legend – primary graphic – footer)
  • stack-2 (Primary graphic – header – controls – legend – footer)
  • stack-3 (Header – primary graphic – controls – legend – footer)
  • stack-4 (Controls – primary graphic – header – controls – legend – footer)
  • grid-1 (Grid mode: Primary graphic on the right)

layout.space_between_sections string

Space between sections.

Allowed values:

  • 0.5 (▁)
  • 1 (▃)
  • 1.5 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.space_between_sections_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.margin_top number

Top.

layout.margin_right number

Right.

layout.margin_bottom number

Bottom.

layout.margin_left number

Left.

layout.border.enabled boolean

Show borders around visualisation.

layout.border.top.width number

Top.

layout.border.top.style string

Style.

Allowed values:

  • solid (Solid)
  • dashed (Dashed)
  • dotted (Dotted)

layout.border.top.color color

Color.

layout.border.right.width number

Right.

layout.border.right.style string

Style.

Allowed values:

  • solid (Solid)
  • dashed (Dashed)
  • dotted (Dotted)

layout.border.right.color color

Color.

layout.border.bottom.width number

Bottom.

layout.border.bottom.style string

Style.

Allowed values:

  • solid (Solid)
  • dashed (Dashed)
  • dotted (Dotted)

layout.border.bottom.color color

Color.

layout.border.left.width number

Left.

layout.border.left.style string

Style.

Allowed values:

  • solid (Solid)
  • dashed (Dashed)
  • dotted (Dotted)

layout.border.left.color color

Color.

layout.read_direction string

Read direction. This will change the reading direction of the main text elements on the page. It's not possible to adjust this on all elements, such as axes. <br><br>Note that when direction is set to <b>right to left</b> any alignment icons will be reversed.

Allowed values:

  • ltr (Left to right)
  • rtl (Right to left)

layout.font_size_mobile_small number

layout.font_size_mobile_big number

layout.font_size_tablet number

layout.font_size_desktop number

layout.font_size_big_screen number

layout.breakpoint_mobile_small number

layout.breakpoint_mobile_big number

layout.breakpoint_tablet number

layout.breakpoint_desktop number

layout.breakpoint_big_screen number

layout.header_align string

Alignment.

Allowed values:

  • left (fa-align-left)
  • center (fa-align-center)
  • right (fa-align-right)

layout.title html

layout.title_styling boolean

Styling.

layout.title_font font

Title Font.

layout.title_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • 1.4 (ᴀ)
  • 1.6 (A)
  • 2 (fa-font)
  • custom (...)

layout.title_size_custom number

Custom. Specify a custom responsive font size in <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/192-how-sizing-with-rems-works-in-flourish">rems</a>. The best results will be with values between 1.2 and 3

layout.title_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.title_color color

Color.

layout.title_line_height number

Line height.

Max: 3

layout.title_space_above string

Space above.

Allowed values:

  • 0 (▁)
  • 0.5 (▃)
  • 1 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.title_space_above_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.subtitle html

layout.subtitle_styling boolean

Styling.

layout.subtitle_font font

Subtitle Font.

layout.subtitle_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • 1.4 (ᴀ)
  • 1.6 (A)
  • 2 (fa-font)
  • custom (...)

layout.subtitle_size_custom number

Custom. Specify a custom responsive font size in <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/192-how-sizing-with-rems-works-in-flourish">rems</a>. The best results will be with values between 1.2 and 3

layout.subtitle_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.subtitle_color color

Color.

layout.subtitle_line_height number

Line height.

Max: 3

layout.subtitle_space_above string

Space above.

Allowed values:

  • 0 (▁)
  • 0.5 (▃)
  • 1 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.subtitle_space_above_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.header_text html

layout.header_text_styling boolean

Styling.

layout.header_text_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • 1.2 (ᴀ)
  • 1.4 (A)
  • 1.6 (fa-font)
  • custom (...)

layout.header_text_size_custom number

Custom. Specify a custom responsive font size in <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/192-how-sizing-with-rems-works-in-flourish">rems</a>. The best results will be with values between 1.2 and 3

layout.header_text_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.header_text_color color

Color.

layout.header_text_line_height number

Line height.

Max: 3

layout.header_text_space_above string

Space above.

Allowed values:

  • 0 (▁)
  • 0.5 (▃)
  • 1 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.header_text_space_above_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.header_border string

Allowed values:

  • top (Top)
  • bottom (Bottom)
  • top_and_bottom (Top & bottom)
  • none (None)

layout.header_border_width number

Width.

layout.header_border_color color

Color.

layout.header_border_style string

Style.

Allowed values:

  • solid (Solid)
  • dashed (Dashed)
  • dotted (Dotted)

layout.header_border_space number

Space. Space between border and header text

layout.header_logo_enabled boolean

Allowed values:

  • true (Enabled)
  • false (Disabled)

layout.header_logo_src url

Image.

layout.header_logo_alt string

Alt text.

Link.

layout.header_logo_height number

Height.

layout.header_logo_align string

Align. Align logo inside either the header or the main visualization container

Allowed values:

  • inside (Header)
  • outside (Main container)

layout.header_logo_position_inside string

Position.

Allowed values:

  • top (Top)
  • left (Left)
  • right (Right)

layout.header_logo_position_outside string

Position.

Allowed values:

  • left (Left)
  • right (Right)

layout.header_logo_margin_top number

Top.

layout.header_logo_margin_right number

Right.

layout.header_logo_margin_bottom number

Bottom.

layout.header_logo_margin_left number

Left.

layout.footer_align string

Alignment.

Allowed values:

  • left (fa-align-left)
  • center (fa-align-center)
  • right (fa-align-right)
  • justify (fa-align-justify)

layout.footer_text_size number

Size.

layout.footer_text_color color

Color.

layout.footer_styling boolean

Advanced footer styles.

layout.footer_font font

Font.

layout.footer_text_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.source_name string

Source name.

layout.source_url string

Source url.

layout.multiple_sources boolean

Multiple sources.

layout.source_name_2 string

Source name.

layout.source_url_2 string

Source url.

layout.source_name_3 string

Source name.

layout.source_url_3 string

Source url.

layout.source_label string

Source label.

layout.footer_note html

Note.

layout.footer_note_secondary html

Note (secondary). The secondary note is placed below the source and primary note

layout.footer_logo_enabled boolean

Image.

Allowed values:

  • true (Enabled)
  • false (Disabled)

layout.footer_logo_src url

Image.

layout.footer_logo_src_light hidden

Image (light version). If provided this version will be used whenever the background color is dark

layout.footer_logo_alt string

Alt text.

Link.

layout.footer_logo_height number

Height.

layout.footer_logo_margin number

Margin.

layout.footer_logo_order string

Position.

Allowed values:

  • left (Left)
  • right (Right)

layout.footer_align_vertical string

V. align.

Allowed values:

  • flex-start (Top)
  • center (Center)
  • flex-end (Bottom)

layout.footer_border string

Allowed values:

  • top (Top)
  • bottom (Bottom)
  • top_and_bottom (Top & bottom)
  • none (None)

layout.footer_border_width number

Width.

layout.footer_border_color color

Color.

layout.footer_border_style string

Style.

Allowed values:

  • solid (Solid)
  • dashed (Dashed)
  • dotted (Dotted)

layout.footer_border_space number

Space. Space between border and footer text

Accessibility

layout.screenreader_text_primary text

Screenreader description. A text alternative to the visual content that will only be visible to <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/230-how-to-add-a-screenreader-description">screenreaders</a>, e.g. “The line chart shows China consistently higher than the other countries since 1990”. <br><br>Do not replicate your title, since that will also be read by screenreaders.

layout.screenreader_label string

Screenreader label. A short text label given to the main Flourish embed wrapper to provide an accessible name that is only visible to <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/230-how-to-add-a-screenreader-description">screenreaders</a>. Added in the form of an "aria-label".

layout.screenreader_hide_primary boolean

Screenreader mode for main visual container. Whether the main visual container is visible to <a href="https://help.flourish.studio/article/230-how-to-add-a-screenreader-description">screenreaders</a>. (Text in the header and footer are always available to screenreaders.)

Allowed values:

  • true (Hidden)
  • false (Readable)