One of my simple charms, those who work with me relate, is that I’m totally blind to obvious stuff when it comes to UI. It’s like I’m interface handicapped or something. If there is a way I can break the interface, I break it.
With that in mind, is it really possible that no one in this great web world ever asked the question: “How Do You Create Comments In Adobe Reader?”
Apparently the answer is yes, no one ever has. Not even at Ask. Yeah, I know, lose the quotes and there will be more answers. But still.
Meanwhile, I am still wondering. Where is the flippin’ comment tool?
Update: I love this, hours after I whined about no results:
Without quotes the second result is from adobe.com:
“Q. Can I add comments to a PDF file with Adobe Reader?
A. PDF authors using Adobe LiveCycle™ enterprise server and design software can activate special features in their documents that provide additional functionality. These enabled Adobe PDF files allow people with Adobe Reader to save the file to a local hard drive, fill out forms, add comments and other markups, share it with others, and submit a completed document electronically. In addition, Adobe PDF files can be enabled to allow people to digitally sign, certify, and authenticate a document.”
so the answer is “you can’t, unless you pay for an upgrade”
there’s an interesting discussion at
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=681499
but no definitive answer
oddly this discussion expresses doubts about Macartan’s solution, but I can’t resolve that either way at the moment
great question though
sabadashus at sabadashus
If you’re on the Mac platform http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/. Don’t know what the pc version is.
http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/pdfx_viewer/
pdfx_viewer from Tracker Software – it’s free and promises this: “View, Print, Export Text & Images and add content to PDF files, type on PDF’s in any font, fill and save forms and much more ! “
According to Adobe’s Acrobat Reader FAQ web page, Reader is meant to “open, view, search, and print” PDF’s. It can perform more advanced features (such as adding comments) *if* the PDF has been authored in certain paid versions that can enable this functionality. There may be 3rd party work-arounds, but Adobe’s business model seems to entail getting paid for the advanced features.
Adobe Reader does not come with commenting tools built in. For that, you need to get Adobe Acrobat Standard. However, Adobe Acrobat Professional comes with the additional ability to enable doccuments for commenting. If you distribute the form with Adobe Acrobat Professional, recipients with Adobe Reader will see the commenting toolbar. Once the comments are sent back to the initiator, that user can combine all the comments into one single PDF. There is also some capability in Adobe Acrobat Pro to enable documents for form fill-in. The ability to turn on this capability in documents is also possible from Adobe LiveCycle Servers, as noted above. So, the short answer is that the functionality is turned on in Reader when it receives certain special documents. Otherwise, you need Standard or Pro.
Thanks guys. You are right, I had a non reader enhanced version, and my team at FM had a later, enterprise version. I need to upgrade! Meanwhile, I’m working in Word again!