The note-taking and highlighting feature allows candidates to highlight text and make notes during a test. The notes and highlights will only be visible during the test, not after submission, and will not be visible to anyone but the candidate who made the notes.

This article shows you how to enable the feature, describes the candidate experience for highlighting and note-taking, and details the known limitations.

Enable the feature in Design settings

1. Go to the Deliver module and create a new test.

2. In the Design settings, select Enable notes and highlights.

   

3. You may test this feature to see what the candidate sees by highlighting some text in the design preview. A text box with the message Annotate and Highlight will appear. 

   

How the feature work for the candidate

There are three main functions in this feature: highlighting text, taking notes, and keep text selected (for certain platforms).

• It is possible to highlight and take notes in the question or stimulus.
• It is not possible to highlight and take notes on the following features:
  • images
  • videos
  • interaction elements (such as draggable options in a drag and drop interaction and a prompt)
  • global elements
  • navigation
  • answer text

1. Highlighting text

   1. In order to highlight text, the candidate first needs to mark the text, then click Highlight text.

      

   2. The marked text will then be highlighted in brown and is automatically saved. 

      

   3. You can delete the highlight by clicking on the highlighted text and selecting Delete Highlight.

      

   4. A confirmation message will appear at the top of the page, informing you that the highlight has been deleted.

      

2. Taking notes

   • Notes are private. They are completely hidden from planners, graders and invigilators at all times
   • Notes are only available during the test. Not after the candidate has submitted, unless opened for resubmission. 
   • In group exams, notes are visible / shared between members of the group
   • Text in PDF panels, additional resources, equations and media can not be annotated
   • Notes should not be enabled in tests where restricted navigation rules apply (Navigate back prohibited, Navigation footer hidden)

   Instructions

   1. To make notes, the candidate first needs to mark the text, then click New note. Notes will be automatically saved

      

   2. The marked text will be highlighted in blue, and a note panel will automatically appear on the right side of the screen. The candidate can then write a note in the inputbox. 

      

   3. To navigate, you can click anywhere inside the notebox, and the system will take you to the question where you added the notes. Alternatively, you can click directly on the highlighted text, and the related notebox will then change color from white to blue.

      

   4. The candidate can add more notes after one note is saved. The notes can also be edited, or they can be deleted by clicking Delete. After deleting a note, you will have to click Confirm delete.

      

      

   5. To close the notes panel, click on the cross icon in the upper right corner (see image below). 

      

   6. In order to show the notes panel, click on any highlighted text in the question or stimulus, or the notes symbol in the upper right. 

      

3. Keep text selected

   On certain platforms (Safari and SEB on macOS), selected text can sometimes disappear immediately after you release the mouse button. This prevents you from using features like making notes, highlighting, or copying the text.

   The Keep text selected feature addresses this by allowing you to instantly restore the last text selection you made, so you can accurately complete your action, like Add Notes, Highlight text or Copy(cmd+C).

   Instructions

   1. Once the feature is enabled, when selecting a text, there will be a third option to keep the text selected. 

      

   2. When clicking on Keep text selected, the icon turns green, and the last text selection is restored. 

      

   3. The toolbar remains on the screen, to allow you to highlight, add notes or copy (cmd+c) the text that is selected.

   Additional Notes

   • The feature will be available only for Test Takers using Safari or SEB on a macOS device.
   • The Keep text selected feature will be available to the Test takers once it is enabled at the institution/tenant level.