nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Is your Content Library AI-ready?

Find best practices and a downloadable guide to ensure optimal AI performance and create relevant, effective responses

Learn more

Annotations to replace Writer's Notes

RGroess

Is anyone using Annotations to replace red writer's notes in database content. We're having an issue with the source view not showing the annotations or alert text if a database record was used to populate. Anyone doing something else for writer's notes?

Content

Comments

Rajasekaran Pandiyan

Hi! For this use case, I would recommend using Alert Text rather than Annotations as the closest replacement for red writer’s notes.

Responsive describes Alert Text as a way to attach important information to specific Content Library content for example, reminding users that an attachment is required or that certain information must be updated before the answer is used. When the answer is suggested within a project, the exclamation-mark icon alerts the writer that additional guidance is available.

Annotations serve a slightly different purpose. They are applied within a response and support options such as Internal, Comments, Footnotes, and Endnotes. Depending on the annotation type, they can remain internal or appear in an exported Microsoft Word document. However, an annotation stored with a database record may not surface as writer guidance in the Source View after that record populates the answer.

Therefore, if the goal is to notify writers before they reuse or tailor approved database content, Alert Text would be the better option. The main workflow consideration is that writers need to look for and open the warning icon when reviewing suggested answers.

Helpful references:

RGroess

We need both. We have a lot of directions for pieces within a response versus the whole response, so need an option to provide direction in line with the answer. In addition, we can't have an alert text for every record - which would be the case. Our type of business means we have a lot of customization and writers would have to click through the Alert text when applying their responses on most responses. This would then result in writer abrasion and probably ignoring the alert text as it's become a nuisance, versus a helpful pop up.

Rajasekaran Pandiyan

Thank you for clarifying, that makes sense. Your requirement is not limited to a general warning at the record level; you also need contextual writer instructions attached to specific parts of the response.

I agree that adding Alert Text to most records could create alert fatigue and cause writers to overlook important guidance. Based on your workflow, Alert Text alone would therefore not be an adequate replacement for your current red writer’s notes.

I’d like to investigate whether there is an existing workflow that preserves inline guidance when Content Library content is used to populate a project response. If not, this may represent a product gap around carrying persistent, inline writer instructions from the Content Library into project responses.

Would you be able to share one or two examples, redacted if necessary, showing how the writer’s notes are positioned within your existing answers? That will help us accurately document the workflow and desired behavior for our Product team.

RGroess

I replied to the email, but not sure who that goes to. Here is my response:

Sure. Here is an example of how we are using internal annotations. You can see we also used alert text for this specific item, but need direction within the record as well

Image 1

1.png

2.png

We’d actually prefer the notes to show up within the response like below, but the AI reads this as actual response – not annotation and rewrites or incorporates the into the answer.

Image 2

Rajasekaran Pandiyan

Thank you for sharing these examples. This makes the use case much clearer.

You need the writer guidance to appear at the relevant point within the response so the user knows exactly which section requires review or modification. However, that guidance should remain separate from the approved response content and should not be rewritten or incorporated into the answer by AI.

Currently, Alert Text can provide guidance at the record level, while annotations can be attached to specific text. However, I understand that annotations do not provide the same visibility when the record is being reviewed or reused. Adding the guidance directly to the response improves visibility, but as you noted, AI may interpret it as part of the actual answer.

For now, I would recommend keeping these instructions in Alert Text or annotations rather than within the response itself, to avoid them being included in AI-generated content. I will also share this use case with our Product team as feedback: annotations should remain visible in the relevant project or source view while being excluded from the response content and AI processing.

Thank you again for providing the screenshots and context.

RGroess

Great thank you.

Quick Links

Upcoming Events

Foundations of Project Management
Build confidence managing every stage of a response project This session helps new or returning Responsive users understand how the project lifecycle works from upload to export. Through an interactive format, you’ll learn how to bring documents into Responsive, map and structure them, collaborate with Authors and…
How to Scale Security Reviews with AI and Self-Service
Security reviews can become a major bottleneck late in the sales cycle. This webinar shows how leading organizations are using AI and self-service to streamline the process, reduce repetitive work for InfoSec, and help buyers get trusted security information faster. For Sales, the key takeaway is simple: faster security…
Foundations of Content Management
Build confidence managing every stage of a response project This session helps new or returning Responsive users understand how the project lifecycle works from upload to export. Through an interactive format, you’ll learn how to bring documents into Responsive, map and structure them, collaborate with Authors and…

View All

From the Blog

Why are buyers moving beyond point-in-time compliance?
Why are buyers moving beyond point-in-time compliance?
How does a Trust Center reduce the cost of security questionnaires?
How does a Trust Center reduce the cost of security questionnaires?
Why the SRM maturity gap is also a revenue gap
Why the SRM maturity gap is also a revenue gap