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Kaltura Capture Annotations

Read below to learn more about Kaltura Capture's live annotations feature.

To use Kaltura Capture's annotation features, during a recording, click the pencil icon on the right side of the recording bar.

A screenshot of the active Kaltura Capture recorder, with the pencil icon circled.

When you do, the annotation tools menu will appear above the recording bar.

A screenshot of Kaltura Capture's annotations, with almost every icon labeled.

Table 1. A description of Kaltura Capture's specific annotation features.
Icon Function Description
A screenshot of the pencil icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Draw freehand

The pencil icon within the annotations menu allows you to freehand draw on the screen. You can use your mouse to draw anything you like. Use the color palette to select the desired color of the pen.

A screenshot of the arrow icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu. Draw arrow

The arrow allows you to, well, draw arrows on the screen. Once it's selected, click and drag your mouse. Where your mouse begins will be the start of the arrow, and where it ends will be where the actual "pointer" part of the mouse is. You can select the color of the arrow in the color palette.

A screenshot of the text icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Type text

The icon that looks like a capital "T" is the text icon. Once selected, click anywhere on your screen and a text box will be added, allowing you to add text onscreen. Use the color palette to select the desired color of your text. You can also click inside one of your existing text boxes and select a color to change the color of that text.

Note that you have a maximum of 500 characters within text boxes.

A screenshot of the "click" icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Highlight clicks

The icon that looks like a regular mouse cursor (an arrow icon pointing up and to the left) allows you to highlight each of your mouse clicks. When you click your icon on your capture screen, a small yellow circle will radiate outward from where you clicked - kind of like a radar animation. It's handy for recordings where you click frequently and the locations of your clicks are relevant to your students' understanding of the material (for example, software tutorials). Note that you can't change the color of the "radar" effect - it will always be yellow.

A screenshot of the select icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Select object(s)

The icon depicting two perpendicular arrows allows you to select existing annotations and move them. For example, if you have an arrow onscreen already, you can use the select tool to move it around the screen. If you have multiple objects, you can draw a box onscreen around them and all them will be selected.

You can also use the selection tool to enlarge existing annotation objects. When an object is selected, little boxes will appear at the corners as well as midway through each side of the rectangle.

Clicking and dragging the boxes in the corner of the object will change the overall size of the object.

Clicking and dragging the boxes in the midpoints will allow you to visually "squash" the object by changing only the horizontal or vertical dimension separately.

A screenshot of the whiteboard icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Create whiteboard

The rectangular icon under the color palette creates a virtual whiteboard onscreen. When the whiteboard is present, all the other tools will only be usable within the whiteboard. You can't, for example, select the arrow tool and draw on your screen outside the whiteboard. However, you can use all the other annotation tools - freehand draw, arrows, and text boxes.

You can click the trash icon in the annotations menu to clear the whiteboard. Note that when the whiteboard is present, clicking the trash icon won't delete any existing annotations that are outside the whiteboard.

Click the "X" button at the top right of the whiteboard to close it.

A screenshot of the "download whiteboard" icon in the Kaltura Capture whiteboard. Download whiteboard

You can download the contents of the whiteboard to your computer by clicking the icon that looks like a sideways open bracket with a downward arrow above it. It'll download to your desktop as an image file.

A screenshot of the size slider in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Change Object Size

The vertical slider on the right side of the annotations menu allows you to identify in advance how big you want your annotations to be. Move the slider to the top to make it large and to the bottom to make it small.

Note that this tool only works in advance of creating your annotation - you can't use it to adjust the size of an existing annotation. If you want to adjust the size of an object you've already drawn, use the select tool and click and drag a box in the corner of the selection.

A screenshot of the trash icon in the Kaltura Capture annotations menu.

Delete objects

The trash icon will delete all annotations onscreen. If you're in the whiteboard, it will only delete the annotations within the whiteboard.

A note about accessibility: annotations are a pedagogically useful tool for drawing attention and promoting retention. However, as with all videos produced in an educational context, there may be viewers with disabilities consuming your video. Use annotations along with spoken words that describe what you're doing or when you're indicating emphasis on a particular piece of information.

Have additional questions about video? Contact Multimedia Services at kaltura@ucsd.edu.