iAnnotate 4 — PDFs & more 4+

My grading app for years

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.

Developer Response ,

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!

Reviewing papers is a breeze

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.

Developer Response ,

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!

No Real Flexibility

I am beginning to wonder which reviews are real and which are not. This is now the second pdf app that I’ve tried to use and the flexibility of it to pull files from iCloud and work on them, or notes, and “thought” I saved them is not real. I am happy that I did airdrop the 12 pdf’s I marked up and returned to students with feedback otherwise I would have lost them completely. They are not saved, or stored on the app as it seems to imply, and there is no way to save them on iCloud as I thought I would be able to so that I can access later. I was very much disappointed with how this app does not do or have all the functions it says it does or do. The eraser for it is also hard to use as easily as you would expect, marking and utilizing the tools are also not as easy as they say.
Their customer service…I have yet to hear back from them with regards to my above requests to find out where those files have been stored because there is nothing with in the app or on my iPad, or on my iCloud. So those files have been lost, except for the sent ones to my students.
Do not buy, I think many of these reviews are fake like many other pdf apps. I am very much disappointed with this.