Collaborative in-line content item annotations

A method comprising:

• receiving a command from a user to add an annotation object into a collaborative content item;
• responsive to receiving the command from the user, inserting an annotation object into the collaborative content item;
• responsive to detecting the selection of the annotation object, accessing a secondary collaborative content item from a collaborative content management system server and generating for display, within a display of the collaborative content item, the secondary collaborative content item in visual association with the annotation object;
• detecting textual content within the secondary collaborative content item;
• and
• responsive to detecting the textual content, automatically reformatting the textual content into a citation format.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

• receiving a command from a user to add an annotation object into a line of a collaborative content item;
• responsive to receiving the command from the user, inserting an annotation object onto the line of the collaborative content item;
• detecting selection of the annotation object;
• responsive to detecting the selection of the annotation object, accessing a secondary collaborative content item from a collaborative content management system server and generating for display, within a display of the collaborative content item, the secondary collaborative content item, the secondary collaborative content item in visual association with the annotation object;
• detecting textual content provided by the user within the secondary collaborative content item;
• and
• responsive to detecting the textual content, automatically reformatting the textual content according to a predefined template.