PDF Markup in Microsoft Teams Class Assignments for Windows

If you use Microsoft Teams to participate in a class, either the browser interface or the desktop application, marking up PDF documents to submit for an assignment is not built-in. To be fair, marking up any type of document you are given is not possible, because your documents do not exist inside of Teams. You have to do that outside of Teams, using the file on your computer.

These instructions are specific for marking up a PDF assignment using your Windows PC. Microsoft Windows does not have a built-in PDF markup tool, so you will need to get one. To keep things realistic, my recommendation is to get Drawboard PDF. It costs $10 in the Window's App Store and does a bang-up job! https://www.drawboard.com/pdf/.

These instructions are written at an adult level for someone with basic computer skills, just to keep things simple. Especially since we have to install some software. If you have an elementary-school aged kid who needs to handle their own assignments, this should get you going to help them learn how to do it :)

Downloading a PDF assignment template

When you visit an assignment that has reference materials, each file has an ellipsis menu (...) to the right of it. Click on the ellipsis and click Download to download the file to your device or computer. This image was captured using the browser-based Teams application, but it looks exactly the same in the desktop Teams application.

If you are using the browser, and you have it set to prompt for the download location, you can download the file directly to any folder you want to work in (see the download settings for your browser).

If you do not have your browser set to prompt, or you are using the Teams desktop application, it will save the file to your downloads folder. Use the Windows File Explorer to locate the file in the downloads folder and move it to the folder you want to work in.

Downloading a PDF from a OneDrive share in Teams

If your instructor/facilitator has shared files in OneDrive, you can find these under the Files tab in the selected team. Here you can click on the ellipsis menu (...) to the right of the file name and select Download to do the download. The download works the same as I described above.

Marking up the PDF document

Use the finder to browse to the file, then right-click the file and open in the tool of your choice:

I am using Drawboard PDF. It is pretty simple to use; there is an icon you click on to show the tool "wheel" menu (it's the one in the center of the wheel) to type or draw things. You can see the markup I put on the page on the left to answer questions 6 and 7:

If you are happy with your work, then save the file: click on the menu icon at the upper left, and then in the expanded bar click on the hexagon with ellipsis (...). The Save and Save as menu options are located there. Then upload the changed file to complete the assignment in Teams.