Using Comments

Adding comments is such a breeze in Acrobat. Comments are notes, highlights, or any markings you add to a PDF document to indicate changes. The Commenting tools include Note, Text Edits, Stamp, Highlighter, Cross-Out Text, Underline Text, several drawing tools, Text Box, Pencil, and Attachment tools. The last four of these are under the Advanced Commenting toolbar. Comments can be as simple as a sticky note, or a long explanation. You can also add text edit marks or proofreader marks to the PDF. Sound and movie attachments can be included, as well as stamps to indicate approval, rejection, and more.

Adding Comments

Before adding a comment, decide what kind of comment you want to add. You can insert text edits with the drag of the mouse.

Did you Know?

To insert a text edit, first choose the text edit tool from the Commenting Toolbar. Choose the Indicate Text Edits tool and highlight the text you want to show edits on. Then choose from Insert Text at Cursor, Replace Selected Text, Highlight Selected Text, Add Note to Selected Text, Cross Out Text for Deletion, and Underline Selected Text. When you choose any of the Text Edits, they automatically change the selected text to your chosen text edits (see Figure 10.10).

Figure 10.10. Adding a text edit to selected text.

Many people simply write a comment on a sticky note and slap it on a printed document. I have even seen sticky notes stuck on a computer screen! To add a sticky note without the mess to your PDF, choose the Note tool from the Commenting toolbar. Click and drag out the size you want the note to be. Don't worry, the note won't show up as a huge yellow page covering your PDF. When the note isn't active, it is a small symbol. You can also resize your note at any time. After creating the note, enter the text for your note (see Figure 10.11).

Figure 10.11. A note added to a PDF document.

Reading Comments from Others

The next step to adding a comment is being able to read the comment. You can read not only the comment you just put on, but also any comments any reviewer might have added to the PDF. To read a note, first choose the Hand tool. Just let the Hand tool rest over the note, and you'll see a pop-up of what the note says. You can also double-click on the note to pop up the note completely. To close the note, click on the box in the upper-right corner of the Note text box. Double-clicking the note symbol again also closes the note.

Additionally, you can click on the Options button in the Note box to perform a variety of tasks, including replying to the comment (creating a thread), setting the status of the comment, and changing the properties of the note itself, such as color and opacity.

Commenting Tools

The Basic commenting tools found in the Commenting toolbar are the Note, Text Edits, Stamp, Highlighter, Cross-Out Text, and Underline Text tools.

The Note tool lets you add a note as you would a sticky note to a printed document. Drag out a note, enter your text, and then close the note. Using the Hand tool, you can read the note.

The Text Edit tools highlight a specific area of text, and then you choose a specific edit to apply to the selected text. Choose from Insert Text at Cursor, Replace Selected Text, Highlight Selected Text, Add Note to Selected Text, Cross Out Text for Deletion, and Underline Selected Text.

To add a stamp to a document, you can choose a stamp from the menu, or you can create and use your own stamp. When choosing from the Stamp menu, choose from Dynamic, Sign Here, or Standard Business. Under Dynamic, you can choose from Approved, Confidential, Received, Reviewed, and Revised. In the Sign Here stamp submenu, you'll find Rejected, Accepted, Initial Here, Sign Here, and Witness. Under the Standard Business stamps are Approved, Completed, Confidential, Draft, Final, For Comment, For Public Release, Information Only, Not Approved, Not for Public Release, Preliminary Results, and Void. Under each of those stamp submenus, you can see a preview of what the stamp looks like (see Figure 10.12).

Figure 10.12. Choosing to apply a stamp.

Under the Stamp menu, you'll see the commands Create Custom Stamp, Add Current Stamp to Favorites, and Manage Stamps. Before choosing Create Custom Stamp, you first must have created the stamp image in another program, such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. Then you can follow the steps under the Create Custom Stamp command.

Advanced Commenting Tools

The Advanced Commenting toolbar can be found by choosing Tools, Advanced Commenting, Show Advanced Commenting Toolbar. The Advanced Commenting tools are Drawing, Text Box, Pencil, and Attachment.

Under the Drawing tools, you'll find the Rectangle, Oval, Arrow, Line, Cloud, Polygon, and Polygon Line tools. Use the Drawing tools to add a visual markup to your PDF file. The tools can create a dramatic marking to really show your editing ideas. With the Drawing tools, you can add notes as well.

The Text Box tool lets you create a box that you enter text inside. You can enhance the text box by accessing the properties of the box. To access the properties, right-click on the text box (Windows), or Ctrl-click (Macintosh) on the box with the Text Box tool as the active tool and choose Properties from the context menu. Under the Properties, change the border color, style, background color, opacity, and thickness of the border.

The Pencil tool is handy for adding free-form sketching and shapes to a PDF document. The handy partner to the Pencil tool is the Pencil Eraser tool. Use the Pencil Eraser tool to remove any sections of the lines you have drawn. The Pencil Eraser tool removes only lines drawn with the Pencil tool, not those drawn with any other Drawing tools.

Add attachments to your PDF with the Attachment tool. The attachments you can add are Attach File, Attach Sound, and Paste Clipboard Image.

Did you Know?

To attach sound to a PDF, first select the Attach Sound tool. Click with the Attach Sound tool on the PDF where you want the sound symbol to appear. This launches the Record Sound dialog box. You can either record your sound or notes verbally, or choose a sound stored on your computer.

To attach a more advanced sound, such as music from your iPod, you need to use the Advanced Editing tools. The Advanced Editing tools are discussed later in this chapter.

Importing and Exporting Comments

After your PDF document gets passed around for comments from colleagues, you might want to import their comments and then export your own comments.

Did you Know?

To import comments, you first must have the document open that you want the comments imported into. Then choose Import Comments from the Document menu. This launches the Import Comments dialog box, where you choose the FDF file on your computer. The comments then show up in the comment window and are added into the document as well.

To export your comments, first make sure you have the file with your comments open. Choose Export Comments from the Document menu. Choose the Save as Type (FDF or XFDF) option, and save the file on your computer. You can also choose to export only certain comments rather than all of your comments. Do this in the Comments pane by Command (Ctrl)+clicking on the specific comments, causing them to be highlighted by a bold rectangle; and then use the Export Selected Comments function (see Figure 10.13).

Figure 10.13. Selecting certain comments for exporting in the Comments pane.

Summarizing Comments

The Summarizing feature enables you to create a PDF file with all the comments shown and organized by date, author, and type. In the Comments pane, choose Summarize Comments from the Options menu. You then set the organization of how the comments will be displayed. Choose by date, author, type, and page. In the Summarize Options dialog box, you can choose to include the original PDF file with the comments (might be a large file) or just the comments (see Figure 10.14).

Figure 10.14. Choosing options for creating a comments summary.

Additionally, you can choose Comments, Print with Comments Summary to print the comments in a PDF file. This is useful when you need to make corrections to your source file in, say, InDesign.