HTML Commenter is a zero-dependency, self-contained document annotation tool for any static HTML page. This system allows users to annotate the text on a web page, auto-saves their comments to local storage, and lets them share their comments with others via compressed links or back them up with JSON files, all without requiring a server or external libraries.
The goal of this project is to provide a lightweight collaborative document annotation experience for people who:
- don't want to use SaaS and/or heavy PWAs
- don't want to have to install and maintain software on their own server
- don't want to ask users to install software (like LibreOffice)
don't want to have to send - multiple versions of files around like it's 1990 and we're dealing with Word Documents
- prefer writing in plain markup languages (like Markdown, Org, or HTML), exporting to HTML, and posting their writing to their domain (either self hosted or on things like NeoCities)
Github: https://github.com/alexispurslane/html-commenter/ URL for trying it out: https://alexispurslane.github.io/html-commenter/try.html
NitpickLawyer•2h ago
Hah! Nice.
To be fair, unless you also add a component for server-side storage "somewhere", the sharing is a bit chaotic.
> don't want to have to send multiple versions of files around like it's 1990
Unless I'm missing something, you'll have a bunch of links laying around? Is there a way to "group" links together? Merge?
Edit: oh, there's a resolve thing. So presumably you'd get links from other people and resolve them? Is that tracked anywhere?
logicprog•2h ago
This is true, but it's better than files in that it's a single tap and everything is instantly merged into your existing local storage, instead of you having multiple files downloaded local; and next time you export a link, it will be that merged version, with the other person's comments plus your new ones. So there's a single linear stream of links where the latest link is the correct version for both people at all times, and there's only one version on each person's local hard drive, stored at local storage, instead of file V1, V2, V3, etc. Idk if that makes sense.
> Merge?
Yeah basically. It rolls everything up each time.
> Edit: oh, there's a resolve thing. So presumably you'd get links from other people and resolve them? Is that tracked anywhere?
I initially decided not to have resolution be tracked, but if you think it would help with the sharing process, then I could totally do that!