Choose Tools > Comment.
The Comments toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar and the Comments list is displayed in the right pane.
Last updated on
Mar 5, 2024
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Also applies to Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat 2017
View comments
The Comments list appears in the right pane of the document window. The Comments list displays all comments in a PDF, and it provides a toolbar with common options, such as sorting, filtering, and other options to work with comments.
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Using the Options menu at the upper-right corner of the Comments list, do any of the following:
- Expand or collapse the comments. Click Expand All or Collapse All in the Comments list options menu. To expand an individual comment, click the comment or click (
), in the comment. To collapse an individual comment, click (
) in the comment. - Create or Print Comment Summary.
- Import and Export comments.
- Export to Word or AutoCAD.
- Specify Commenting Preferences.
- Expand or collapse the comments. Click Expand All or Collapse All in the Comments list options menu. To expand an individual comment, click the comment or click (
You can expand the Comments pane for better readability of the long comments.
- To resize the pane, align your cursor along the left boundary of the pane and then hold and drag towards left or right.
You can sort comments in the Comments list by page, author, date, type, unread status, or color. In a thread of replies, only the first message is sorted, and the reply messages are sorted in the same category as the first message in the thread.
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Choose Tools > Comment.
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In the Comment list, choose an option from the Sort Comments by menu
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You can hide or show comments based on status, reviewer (author), type, or color. Filtering affects the appearance of comments in both the document window and the Comments list. When you print or summarize comments, you can specify whether hidden comments are printed or summarized. When you hide a note comment that has been replied to, all other replies in the thread are hidden as well.
Note:
In an email-based review, hidden comments aren’t included when you send the comments to the initiator.
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From the Filter comments menu
in the Comments list, do any of the following:To clear all filters, click Clear All. Alternatively, use Ctrl+8 (Windows) or Command+8 (Mac OS).
Use the toggle switch to show or hide all comments. Alternatively, use Ctrl+Shift+8 (Windows) or Command+Shift+8 (Mac OS).
To filter comments, choose the categories that you want to appear. For example, if you want only sticky note comments that you left unresolved to appear, choose
> Types > Sticky Notes so that only the sticky note comments appear, and then choose > Status > Unresolved, so that only the unresolved sticky note comments appear.To open all pop-up notes, right-click an annotation and choose Open All Pop-Ups. (Only available if the Comments list is closed)
To close all pop-up notes, right-click an annotation and choose Minimize Pop-Ups. (Only available if the Comments list is closed)
Reply to comments
Note:
In Acrobat Reader, commenting features are available only in PDFs that have commenting enabled. PDFs in a review workflow typically include commenting rights.
Replies to comments are especially useful in shared reviews, when participants can read each other’s comments. They can also be used by review initiators to let reviewers know how their suggestions are being implemented. When one or more reviewers reply to a comment, the set of replies is called a thread. In the Comments list, all replies are displayed. Replies are indented below the original comment.
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Open the pop-up note for the comment.
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Click Reply, in the upper right corner of the pop-up note.
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Type your reply in the box that appears.
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Select a comment in the Comments list.
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Type your reply in the box that appears.
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Select a comment and use @mention to get the attention of a document reviewer.
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Type your reply in the box that appears.
You can delete your comments in a PDF. However, you cannot delete other reviewers' comments.
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In the pop-up note, right-click the reply and choose Delete.
Change author name for comments
You can change your name displayed in the comments of a PDF file. Do the following:
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Go to Edit > Preferences (Windows), or Acrobat > Preferences (Mac). In the Commenting category, uncheck the option Always Use Log-in Name For Author Name, and then click OK.
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Select a comment in the Comments list. From the Options menu (), select Properties.
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In the comment properties dialog, go to the General tab, and specify your name in the Author field.
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Select Make Properties Default option, and then click OK.
Set a status
For PDFs shared using Adobe Document Cloud
Status is useful for keeping track of comments that you’ve read, resolved or that require further action. By setting the review status, you can let the review participants know how you are going to handle the comment.
Select the comment in the Comments list and right-click. Alternatively, you can click the Options menu () for the selected comment and perform the following actions:
- To mark the comment as resolved, choose Resolve.
- To mark the comment as unread, choose Mark As Unread.
For PDFs shared using a network folder
Set a status or check mark
In Windows, you can use a status or a check mark to indicate which comments you want to export to a Word document. By setting the review status, you can show or hide a group of comments and let review participants know how you are going to handle the comment. Once the review status is set, you cannot remove the review status display from the comment in the Comments list, even if you change the review status to None. Check marks are for your personal use and do not appear when others view the PDF unless you change the status of comments.
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Select the comment in the Comments list and right-click to show the Options menu. Then choose an option from the Set Status menu.
The review status appears in the comment along with the name of who set the review status. If another reviewer sets the review status for that comment, both reviewers’ names and review statuses appear in the Comments list.
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To view a comment’s history of changes, right-click the note icon, markup, or title bar of a pop-up note, and then choose Properties. Click the Review History tab.
Flag comments with a check mark
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Select a comment in the Comments list. From the Options menu ( ), select Add Checkmark. You can also right-click the comment and select Add Checkmark. A check mark icon (
) appears on the comment.
Note:
By default, the checkbox is hidden. If you use checkboxes on multiple documents, Acrobat prompts you to enable the checkboxes for all documents.
To show checkbox for all comments, do the following:
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Go to Edit > Preferences (in Windows), or Acrobat > Preferences (in macOS). The preferences dialog box is displayed.
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In the Commenting category, select Show Checkbox under Making Comments.
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Click OK.
The checkbox is now available for all comments. To add a checkmark, select the checkbox next to the comment.
Print a comment summary
Summarizing comments is a convenient way to get a synopsis of all the comments associated with a PDF. When you summarize comments, you can either create a PDF with comments that you can print, or you can print the summary directly. The summary is neither associated with nor linked to the PDF that the comments are derived from.
A. Document and comments with connector lines on single page B. Document and comments with connector lines on separate pages C. Comments only D. Document and comments with sequence numbers
By default, Acrobat prints PDFs with any stamps that were applied. For the greatest control over how comments are printed, choose > Print With Comments Summary from the Comments list.
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Filter the comments to show only those you want in the summary. (In the Comments list, click Filter Comments
and choose the categories of comments you want to show.)
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For the greatest control over how comments are printed, choose > Print With Comments Summary. Alternatively, to create a separate PDF of the comments, choose > Create Comment Summary.
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In the Create Comment Summary dialog box, do the following:
Choose a layout for the document and comments. The layout determines available options.
Choose how to sort the comments.
Specify a page range and choose whether to include pages without comments.
Select whether you want all comments to appear in the summary or only the comments that currently appear.
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Click Create Comment Summary.
Find a comment
Locate a comment in the Comments list by searching for a particular word or phrase.
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Choose Tools > Comment to display the Comments list.
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Click
. In the Search Comments field, specify the word or phrase you want to search for.
The Comments list displays the comments that match the search criteria; the number of comments is displayed on the panel header.
Delete comments
You cannot delete other reviewers’ comments in a shared review, nor can you delete locked comments.
Note:
To delete all of the comments in a PDF, choose Tools > Redact > Remove Hidden Information. Then select the Comments and markups option from the Results pane. This feature is not available in Reader.
Delete a comment
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Do one of the following:
Select the comment and press Delete.
In the Comments list, right-click on the comment you want to delete, choose Delete from the context menu.
Note: Before pressing the Delete key, make sure that the comment is selected.
Unlock a comment
Only available for for PDFs shared using a network folder
Note:
Only available for PDFs shared using a network folder
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Right-click the comment and choose Properties.
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Deselect Locked.
Spell-check all text in comments
You can spell-check the text you add in note comments and form fields. However, you cannot spell-check the text in the underlying PDF.
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Select the comment. From the options menu, choose Edit.
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Right-click the text, and select Check Spelling.
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Click Start. To change a word, do one of the following:
Edit the selected word. To undo your change, click Undo Edit. To accept your change, click Change.
Double-click a suggested correction.
Select a suggested correction and then click Change. Click Change All to replace every instance of the unrecognized word with the suggested correction.
