Bringing Forward Annotations

If your Vault configuration allows this, you can bring forward link, comment, anchor, and line annotations from previous document versions to the latest version of the document, dramatically reducing the effort required to maintain annotations throughout a document’s lifecycle. This feature must be enabled by an Admin.

Note that Vault does not bring forward resolved annotations.

How to Bring Forward Annotations

To bring forward annotations from a previous version:

From the Doc Info page on the latest version of the document, click View annotations. If the document already has annotations, it will open in Annotate mode by default.
Click the Bring Forward Annotations (arrow) icon that appears in the toolbar of the document viewer. If this icon does not appear, there are no valid annotations that Vault can bring forward. Also, the icon may not appear if you do not have the correct permissions.
Select Bring forward annotations.
Select the version from which to bring forward annotations. To examine a document version, click the icon next to the picklist to open the selected version in a new mini-browser window.
Select the annotation types (comments, links, anchors, and/or lines) to bring forward.
Select Restore placement of image annotations to auto-place brought forward image annotations.
Optional: Select Do not bring forward duplicate link annotations in the Advanced section. This prevents Vault from creating duplicate link annotations in the target version when multiple links with the same selected text and link to anchor exist in the source version.
Optional: Select Do not bring forward page-level annotations in the Advanced section. Vault creates page-level annotations when annotations from previous versions can’t be auto-placed. See how to prevent page-level annotations below for further details.
Optional: If pages were added to or removed from the document between versions, you can use the Advanced section to specify added/removed pages. This helps Vault to place annotations on the correct page.
Click Complete.
Optional: Select each annotation and use the move annotation option to re-select a portion of the document to attach.

Bringing Forward Anchors

Admins can configure your Vault to bring forward anchors in addition to the other annotation types. Vault brings forward anchors with no inbound references while maintaining any relationships in previous document versions. The brought forward anchors are available for selection from the Select Anchors dialog when creating new relationships.

Annotation Placement

When enabled, Vault places annotations brought forward from a previous version on the same text, typically on the same page, in the new version.

How Vault Places Image Annotations

Vault brings forward image annotations (sticky comments, lines, notes, links, and anchors) on the same page and coordinates when possible. If the page and coordinates do not exist in the new version, Vault brings the annotation forward at the page level. You can move these annotations to associate them with a specific part of the document or leave them as page-level annotations.

How Vault Places Text Annotations

If Vault detects matching text on the same page as the previous version, it will:

Automatically place comment, link, and anchor annotations with text selections in the new version if the text appears only once.
Bring forward the annotation at the page level if the text appears more than once.

If Vault does not detect matching text on the same page as the previous version, it first searches all other pages and then:

Places the annotation on the page where the matching text appears if matching text only appears once in the entire document.
Brings forward the annotation at the page level on the first page where the matching text appears if matching text occurs more than once across multiple pages.

If no matching text exists throughout the document, Vault places the annotation at the page level on the same page number as the previous version. For example, if the annotation was on page 5 of an 11-page document but the original page 5 is deleted from the new version, Vault places the annotation at the page level on the new page 5.

If a page with that page number no longer exists, Vault places the annotation at the page level on the last possible page in the document. For example, if the annotation was on page 3 but the new version only has 2 pages, Vault places the annotation at the page level on page 2.

How Vault Places Video Annotations

Vault brings forward video annotations (notes and links) using the same time signature and coordinates whenever possible. If the time signature and coordinates do not exist in the new version, Vault places the annotation at the 00:00 time signature with an alert icon. You can move these annotations to associate them with a specific time signature in the video or leave them as is.

How to Prevent Duplicate Link Annotations

Vault can create duplicate link annotations if identical links appear on multiple pages in the source version. To prevent Vault from creating duplicate link annotations, select Do not bring forward duplicate link annotations under Advanced in the Bring Forward Annotations dialog. If duplicates exist, Vault creates a single copy of the link annotation in the new version.

Vault can detect duplicates only for link annotations with text selections. Duplicates must link to the same anchor and have identical selected text, including punctuation and spaces in text. For example, duplicate detection would not work if a user selected “An mCRPC patient on second-generation hormonal therapy (1-8):” in one paragraph, but did not select the ending colon in another.

Note that Vault searches for duplicates within each page, and not across all pages of the document.

How to Prevent Page-Level Annotations

Select Do not bring forward page-level annotations under Advanced in the Bring Forward Annotations dialog to prevent Vault from creating page-level annotations, which occur when Vault can’t place annotations from previous versions. Note that Vault still brings forward annotations that were created at the page level on the source version.

About Removing Brought-Forward Annotations

You can remove brought forward annotations by clicking the Bring forward annotations icon and selecting Remove brought forward annotations. This function is useful when you’ve brought forward annotations in error or have accidentally created duplicates.

The Remove action deletes all annotations that you brought forward from a previous version. This action also deletes any subsequent edits or replies to annotations that you brought forward. Once confirmed, you cannot undo the action. This will not remove annotations brought forward by other users. Users with Remove Annotations permission can remove annotations brought forward by any user by selecting the Remove ALL brought forward annotations checkbox in the Undo Bring Forward Annotations dialog.

About Duplicate Annotations

Vault allows you to perform the bring forward action as many times as needed from any version that includes at least one open (not resolved) annotation. If Vault has already brought forward an annotation, it is not brought forward again. When bringing forward annotations, you can also prevent duplicate link annotations.

About Relationships & Link Annotations

When you bring forward link-type annotations, Vault also brings forward the Linked Documents relationship. In some cases, the relationship will already exist:

On the current version, a user created a new document link to the reference document.
Someone used the Bring Forward Annotations option to bring forward a link to the same reference document. This could be the same link you are bringing forward, or a different link to the same target document.
Your Vault has the Bring Forward References feature enabled and Vault brought the relationship forward automatically.

To avoid creating duplicates, Vault only creates a new Linked Documents relationship while bringing forward annotations if the relationship does not already exist.

About Links to Unnamed Anchors

Document links created prior to enablement of the Enhanced Document Links & Anchors feature refer to “unnamed anchors” (previously “inbound links”). However, Vault only brings forward links that refer to named anchors.

There are two ways to convert an unnamed anchor to a named anchor, making it possible to bring the related document link annotation forward:

The original creator of the link and anchor can edit the anchor and add an Anchor Name. No other user is able to perform this edit.
An Admin can use the Merge Anchors tool to merge the unnamed anchor with a new, named anchor.

You can inspect each reference link in a document to identify links to unnamed anchors. These show “No title” where a named anchor’s title displays.

Type	Permission Label	Controls
Document Lifecycle Role	[Document Lifecycle] : [Lifecycle] : [State] : [Security Settings] : Annotate	Grants ability to bring forward note and line annotations. Also allows user to delete any brought forward annotations except referenced anchors.
Security Profile	Viewer Administration : Manage Anchors	Grants ability to bring forward anchors. User must also have the Annotate permission.
Security Profile	Viewer Administration : Remove Annotations	Grants ability to remove annotations brought forward from another version by any user. Grants access to the Remove brought forward annotations action in the document viewer toolbar and the Remove ALL brought forward annotations checkbox in the Undo Bring Forward Annotations dialog.