What is Project Pad?

Project Pad is a web-based system for adding notes to media clips and sharing those notes with others. Project Pad includes tools for annotating audio, video, and high resolution images.

Introducing annotation documents..

Project Pad tools let you create or edit annotation documents. Think of a an annotation document as a kind of word processing document containing a set of notes about a media clip. Annotation documents are just XML files that you can move from place to place.

Annotation documents do not contain the images, video, or audio. Several people may each create an annotation document with notes attached to a single image or audio recording. All that will be in the annotation document are notes and a URL pointing to the location of the media.

What is a workspace?

Think of a workspace as a directory containing annotation documents and other files and folders. Project Pad workspaces may be directories that you can mount to your desktop (via WEBDAV or FTP) and change just as if it were a folder on your local hard drive. Other workspaces may represent remote repositories or databases.

How do I open an annotation document?

Each tool has a panel in the upper left hand corner. Click the "Open" button on this panel. This will open a file dialog with a set of tabs and a tree view. The first tab represents your personal workspace. Additional tabs let you view workspaces that you share with others.

When using the file dialog only those documents that can be loaded into the current tool appear in black type. All other documents will appear in gray. Use the file dialog to select a document and click the "Open" button on the dialog.

What happens if several people open the same document at the same time?

When one user makes a change all of the users will immediately see that change. This will let you work collaboratively with others.

How can I add media files for annotation?

See the help topic on adding additional media files.