Chapter 11. Using Comment Tools

Some of the best new features in Adobe Reader 7 are the abilities to comment on and mark up documents, participate in review sessions, and save files after making comments and markups . For those of you who work in an environment where review and approval of documents is part of your job, the new commenting features in Adobe Reader will surely impress you. This chapter, and the next few as well, will teach you some nifty ways of working with PDF documents with usage rights enabled for Adobe Reader.

Enabling PDFs with Adobe Reader Usage Rights

To comment and mark up documents in Adobe Reader, you must use a PDF that was prepared in Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional with usage rights enabled for Reader users, or else you must use a PDF with Reader Extensions added via the Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions Server. You can't create such PDF documents in Adobe Reader; you must receive them from a PDF author.

NOTE

For information on PDFs enabled with the Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions Server, see Appendix A, "Creating PDF Files."

Figure 11.1 helps you to understand how a PDF author enables a document for you to add comments and markups . The figure shows a simple menu command available in Acrobat Professional. When the Acrobat 7 Professional user selects Comments > Enable for Commenting in Adobe Reader, a Save As dialog opens and the PDF author saves a copy with the usage rights added to the file. It's simple and takes little effort on the part of PDF authors to create a document that permits you to use an abundant set of commenting and markup tools, participate in review sessions, add custom stamps to your tool arsenal, and attach files to documents. For information on working in review sessions, see Chapter 15, "Working with Reviews and Markups. For information on creating custom stamps see Chapter 12, "Working with Stamps Comments." For information on adding file attachments to PDFs, see Chapter 13, "Working with File Attachments."

Figure 11.1. Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional users select a single menu command to save a PDF that enables you to comment on and mark up documents.

Preparing for a Commenting Session

When you open a file that has been enabled with usage rights for Adobe Reader users, the Commenting and Drawing Markups toolbars load in the Reader application. These tools are not available to you unless you're working on a PDF that has had usage rights applied. By default, the toolbars are hidden from view. You need to open the toolbars to use the commenting tools.

If you don't have a file with usage rights enabled, use the draftLayout.pdf file from www.peachpit.com/adobereader7 for all the steps related to using the Commenting toolbar.

To open the Commenting and Drawing Markups toolbars in Adobe Reader:

1.	Open a PDF document with usage rights enabled for Adobe Reader.
2.	Open a context menu in the Toolbar Well and select Commenting ( Figure 11.2 ). Return to the menu and select Drawing Markups and again to select Properties Bar . Figure 11.2. Open a context menu in the Toolbar Well and select the Commenting and Drawing Markups toolbars and the Properties Bar .
3.	The toolbars open as floating toolbars in the Adobe Reader window. Return to the context menu and select Dock All Toolbars . The toolbars are docked in the Toolbar Well. You'll want to open these toolbars each time you engage in commenting and review sessions. TIP You can also open comment tools from the Comment & Markup task button that appears in the Toolbar Well. From the task button pull-down menu select commands for opening the toolbars. NOTE When you open your first PDF document for which Reader usage rights have been enabled, all the toolbars are hidden from view. After you open the toolbars and dock them in the Toolbar Well, the new toolbar locations become a default. When you quit Adobe Reader, relaunch the program and open a file with usage rights enabled, the toolbars appear as you last left them in the Toolbar Well.
4.	To further prepare you for commenting, verify that the Identity preferences are set properly. Open the Preferences dialog and click Identity in the left pane ( Figure 11.3 ). Verify that the text boxes contain your personal identity information (or, if they don't, enter the info ). Figure 11.3. Click Identity in the Preferences dialog box and fill in the text boxes with your personal information.
5.	Open Help in the How To window. You may want some help while working in a commenting session. Quick access to help information is provided in the How to Window. Open a pull-down menu from the Comment & Markup task button and select How To…Add Comments & Markups ( Figure 11.4 ). When you select the menu command, the help categories are listed in the How To window to the right of the Document pane. Click an item in the list to obtain help information that corresponds to the item. When finished reviewing information, click the Hide button to provide more working area in the Document pane. Figure 11.4. Select How To…Add Comments & Markups from the Comment & Markup task button pull-down menu.

Why are Identity preferences important?

When you create comments, the comments are assigned an author name derived from the Identity preferences. Having your name assigned to comments you create makes the comment identification clear when you're sharing comments with other usersparticularly when participating in review sessions. In addition, when you use dynamic custom stamps, as explained in Chapter 12, certain identity information is dynamically added to the stamps.

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Chapter 11. Using Comment Tools