Start GMAO

First, load up GMAO. Please note that you will have to be online to use this tutorial (the images and everything are hosted online.)

Load up the test XML file

I have set up a test file that you can use to practice translating on. To open it, you can use the "Open Remote" menu item in the "File" menu.
Screenshot of Open Remote Menu Item

You should see a list of different manga available (these are the manga that are hosted on the Annotation server that you are using - probably fugu.cs.columbia.edu).
Remote Open dialog
Scroll down until you can see "GMAO Test", select that, and open it. It should load up the XML file. You are now ready to start creating bubbles and putting translations in them! On the left hand side of the screen, open up the tree display so you can see what has been translated already.

Someone already translated up to page 6

In my case, up to page 6 has been translated. Click on the page folder to load that page up. We want to add a new page. So go to the GMAO->New Page menu item, and enter the next page.

Adding a new page

You have to make sure that the file name it suggests is the correct name, or you might get a 404 File Not Found error. Generally, it suggests the correct name. You will have to expand the left hand side again to see the new page. Click on the blank "Page 7" icon to load up the new page.

Logging In

Before annotating, we have to log in. Select "Log In" from the Annotator menu. If you have never logged in before, you can use anything you want for your annotatorID (it will be displayed in the html pages so make sure you don't mind people seeing it) and name. The password can be anything as well. If you have already logged in, use the same AnnotatorID, Annotator Name, and Password. Once you have logged in, you can create bubbles.
Logging in
Now, select the Polygon (or Oval or Rectangle tool) and draw over the text that you would like to translate. For the Oval and Rectangle, click once for one end point, and again for the final end point. For the polygon, you click one time for each point on the polygon, and double click to close the polygon. Be careful - there's no way to fix mistakes except to erase the whole bubble. When you have finished, the text should "disappear" - actually, it is just covered up by the bubble, but if your bubbles don't have an outline on them, and a white background, it might look like you've erased the text. You can always toggle the display of the bubbles with the button up in the toolbar.

The Z and X keys can be used to cycle between the bubble drawing tools on the toolbar. You can also use tab and space bar to select a button highlighted with tab.
Drawing a bubble
Once you have drawn your bubble, you can add a translation to it by selected "New Translation" from the GMAO menu. The new translation will be added to the last bubble the mouse was over. When you have finished, you should save the file locally (File->Save) or send it to the server if you are saving changes on the server. You can try that with the GMAO->Send Page to Server command.
A completed page
This other tutorial that I wrote up earlier shows a few more features of GMAO.

Fugu Tabetai