Sometimes you need to add some notes to the Layout Window which colleagues can see, but which can be switched off prior to printing, or made invisible to customers. Any items you add to a Layout Window can be made into an annotation such as text, geometric shapes or colourways, meaning you can switch them on and off, depending on your audience.  

Adding annotations in the Layout Window

Add the object you wish to act as an annotation and make it active. In the snapshot below, this is some Dynamic Text.

Open the Layout Inspector and click on the ruler icon along the top and tick Annotate. This turns the active object into an ‘annotation’, meaning it can be made visible and invisible, depending on the audience.

To make the newly created annotation invisible, untick Show annotations in the View Menu.

You can set up a Preflight check to ensure the annotations are visible when opening the Layout page, and when printing it. To do this, go to AVA Menu > Settings > Preflight. Under the Opening tab, tick Enable preflight checks when opening the Layout Window, and Check annotations are visible.

Then, under the Printing Layout Window tab, firstly tick Enable preflight checks before printing from the Layout Window, then tick Check annotations are visible.

Viewing separate annotations using the Layers Palette

When you open a Layout Window, the Layers Palette updates and shows any annotation layers in the file.

Keeping annotations on separate layers has many advantages. If you have a lot of notes on the page, it’s nice to be able to turn some off so you can focus on a particular set of instructions. Or you may have separate notes for colourists and separation artists.

1. Open the Layout Window (⌘Y).
2. From the Layers Palette, click the + symbol highlighted in the snapshot below.
3. A new ‘untitled’ layer will be added.  Double click on the layer to re-name it.
4. Give the layer a name which clearly identifies the type of information that is on that layer.
   

Assigning different annotations to its own layer

1. Add the object you wish to act as an annotation and make it active.
2. Open the Layout Inspector and click on the ruler icon along the top and tick Annotate.
3. Activate the layer you want this annotation to be on.