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How to use Pinpoint

Pinpoint adds a small toolbar to your call. Mark any part of the shared screen, write a comment, and everyone in the call sees it. Nothing to set up.

Start in a call

1. Install Pinpoint in Chrome, Edge, Brave or Arc.
2. Join your call in the browser: Google Meet, Zoom (choose “Join from your browser”) or Teams on the web.
3. Click the Pinpoint icon, or press Alt+Shift+P. A toolbar appears at the top right. Box is already on.

Everyone in the same Meet or Zoom call who has Pinpoint is in the same session automatically. On Teams for the web, open Comments, copy your code, and share it in the call chat. Others paste it under “Join a teammate’s session”.

Mark an area and comment

1. With Box on, drag over any part of the screen. Or click one corner, then the opposite corner.
2. You can scroll the page with the mouse or trackpad while Box is on. The tool stays on.
3. A comment box opens beside the area. The first time only, add your name.
4. Type your comment and press Enter. Use Shift+Enter for a new line, or Esc to cancel.

After you post, Box stays on, so you can mark the next section straight away. Everyone sees a numbered pin on the area, and a note saying you captured it. Boxes drawn on the shared screen stay on the same spot for everyone, even when their layout is different.

The toolbar also has Pen (draw on the screen; your lines stay and everyone sees them, even people who join later) and Pointer (everyone sees where you point, with your name).

Drawings and scrolling

• On an ordinary web page, pins, boxes and drawings stay on the content they point at as you scroll. While you scroll, drawings hide for a moment and the comment pins stay.
• Select the eye button on the toolbar to hide drawings and keep only the comment pins. Select it again to show them.
• Select the eraser button to clear your drawings for everyone. Hosts can clear everyone’s drawings from Comments, under Session.
• Screenshots include the drawings, so the picture shows the whole workspace.
• Prefer lines that fade? In Customise, set Pen lines to fade after 10 or 30 seconds.

See and answer comments

• Click a pin on the screen to open its thread.
• Click Comments on the toolbar to see every thread. The number on it shows how many are open.
• Reply, then press Enter. Select Resolve when it is fixed.
• Click outside the popover, or press Esc, to close it.
• After the call, open Comments → Open board to see every thread on the website. People without the extension can read and reply there too. Select Copy open threads to paste them into Linear, Jira, GitHub or Slack.

Save or copy the picture

Each thread keeps a picture of the whole screen, with the area outlined and the comments beside it. Replies are added to the picture as they come in. Under the picture, select Save image to download it, or Copy image to paste it into a chat, email or ticket.

Full-page screenshot

Select the camera button on the toolbar. Pinpoint scrolls through the whole page, joins it into one tall picture, and draws every open comment on it with its number. It puts you back where you were. Save or copy the picture from the panel. It stays on your device until you share it.

When you are presenting

1. Share a Chrome tab in your call.
2. Go to that tab and click the Pinpoint icon there too.
3. Pinpoint shows “You are presenting this tab”. What your viewers mark on your shared screen now appears on your real page, in the same spot.

This lines up exactly when you share one tab. If you share a whole screen or window, marks can land slightly off.

Keyboard and other ways to mark

• Open Comments and select Mark with keyboard. Arrow keys move the box, Shift and the arrow keys resize it, and buttons do the same. Select Capture this area.
• Comment on whole screen comments on everything you can see.
• Click two corners instead of dragging, if dragging is hard.

Customise

Select the sliders icon on the toolbar. Change your name and colour, light or dark theme, larger text, where the toolbar sits, whether pen lines stay or fade, and how thick they are. You can hide other people’s pointers or the capture notes on your screen, and reduce motion.

For hosts: privacy controls

The first person to open Pinpoint in a call is the host. In Comments, under Session, the host can:

• Turn off screen captures while sensitive information is on screen. Comments still work.
• Lock the session so nobody new can join.
• Delete any thread, or the whole session with every picture in it, from the board.

Read the full privacy policy.

If something does not work

• Nothing happens when I click the icon. Chrome blocks extensions on its own pages, like new tabs and settings. Open your call first.
• It asks me to click the icon again. The page reloaded. Click the Pinpoint icon once more.
• Zoom or Teams desktop app. Browser extensions can’t run inside desktop apps. Join the call in your browser.
• The toolbar covers something. In Customise, move the toolbar to the top left or the bottom.

Still stuck? Email bryanonyenghan@gmail.com.