Tools to (privately) annotate/markup a website for maintenance
- by rob
I've been tasked with updating a website. Rather than proofreading and updating each page (one at a time), I want to make a single pass over the entire website, marking graphics/images/videos that need to be rewritten, removed, or updated. I thought about taking screenshots, marking those up, and putting them in our bug-tracking database, but that seems like an extremely tedious solution.
Some of the content is similar on various pages across the website, and the entire site itself is localized into several languages (so any changes made to the English version will have corresponding changes for other languages). I also want all of my markup to remain private (that is, if it's stored online somewhere, I should be the only person who can see my comments).
I found an article that lists several website annotation services, but it's not clear whether they allow private annotations, or whether these tools are even appropriate for website maintenance (many of them look more geared toward social networking).
I've started making a list of some necessary and desired features below, and may add more as necessary.
Annotations/markup/comments remain private (only visible to me)
Comment history/tagging (so I can reuse the same comment for shared footers, items requiring similar updates, etc.)
Ability to print/export a list or report of all comments for the entire website
Ability to produce a categorized list of changes (e.g., to produce a list of images that need updating, which I can send to the graphic designer)
What processes and tools do you use to keep track of all the changes that need to be made to a website? What features are painfully absent from the tools you use?
