Annotating

PDF Documents

A 10 Min Guide

Annotating PDF Documents

Annotate PDFs, Save Time

If you are using an older version of Adobe Reader to view PDF files,
upgrade to Adobe Reader XI. This latest version of Adobe Reader is rich
in commenting features that will save you from multiple tasks such as
taking printouts, scanning marked copies, or typing lengthy instructions
for providing feedback on your book.
Upgrading to Adobe Reader XI is free and simple. Type adobe
reader xi in Google and click on any of the first few entries of the search
results. Once you are on the download page (Figure 1), you can install
the application in easy steps.
After you finish installation, use this guide to annotate PDF files and
send your feedback in a very short time. Although this guide explains
tools found in Adobe Reader XI, you can use it for other PDF-marking
software.
Marking PDF files expedites the publishing process since the
response time gets reduced from days to hours. By annotating PDFs, you
can review a chapter within a couple of hours and instantly reply to your
editor.

Figure 1 Download page of Adobe Reader XI

Annotating PDF Documents

Know Your Tools

To mark corrections and feedback, you will require only the following
tools available on the comment panel (Fig. 2): insert-text tool [1], replacetext tool [2], delete tool [3], add-note-to-text tool [4], textbox tool [5], and
text-callout tool [6]. You can activate the commenting panel by clicking
on comment on the extreme right of the toolbar (Fig. 3a). If the toolbar is
hidden (Fig. 3b), go to view and click on comment/annotations.

1
2
5
6
3

Figure 2 Comment panel of PDF file

Toolbar

(a)

Click on
comment

(b)

Figure 3 How to activate comment panel

Annotating PDF Documents

Insert-Text Tool
Use the insert tool to indicate where to insert text or punctuation marks
in the paragraph. Click on the point where you want to insert, and a popup will appear. Simply type in the pop-up what you want to insert. You
do not have to give any instructions about what to insert.

Figure 4 Insert-text tool

Replace-Text Tool
Use the replace tool to indicate the text you want to change. Select the
word or para you want to replace and type in your replacement. Again as
before, you do not have to give any instructions.

Figure 5 Replace-text tool

Delete Tool
When you select the text you want to delete, a red line appears, indicating
the portion to be deleted.

Annotating PDF Documents

Figure 6 Delete-text tool

Add-Note-To-Text Tool
If you want to underline text or make it bold or italic, use the note tool.
Just select the text and write the instruction in the pop-up that appears.
The selected text will get highlighted.

Figure 7 Text-note tool

Textbox Tool
The textbox tool can be used to give general instructions to the editor,
such as decrease space between paragraphs or justify paragraphs.

Figure 8 Textbox tool

Annotating PDF Documents

Text-Callout Tool
Text-callout tool is particularly useful to indicate precisely where to insert
figures, tables, or additional text within paragraphs.

Figure 9 Text-callout tool

Properties of Tools
You can change the properties of all these tools by opening the properties
panel. The short-cut key for opening the panel is Ctrl+E. Figure 10 shows
some options available in the tools discussed before.

Figure 10 Properties panel

Comments List
The comments list allows you to quickly review all your remarks when
you reach the end of the document. If the list is not open, click on
Comments List just below the Drawing Markups panel.

Annotating PDF Documents

Figure 11 Comment list showing markups

A Master Tool for Three Tools

The 'text-correction-markup' tool can be used in place of the insert,
replace, and delete tools. Select the text you want to replace and start
writing. Or if you want to delete the selected text, press the delete key. To
indicate an insertion, simply start writing after clicking on the point
where you want to insert your text.

Text correction markup tool

Select and start typing

Figure 12 Text-correction-markup tool

Single-Key Accelerators
Accessing all these tools is at your fingertips. Press E for selecting the
text-correction-markup tool, X for the textbox tool, and P for the textcallout tool. But for this, you have to activate the single-key accelerators.
First open the preferences dialogue box by pressing Ctrl+K (Figure 13).
Then click on General and tick the first checkbox: use single-key
accelerators to access tools. After this you do not even have to open the
comment panel.

Saving Comments

Whatever changes you mark, you have to save them. Adobe Reader XI
gives you the option to save the marked file with a new name, thus
preserving the original file. When you press Ctrl+S, a window appears in
which you can change the name of the file and save it in any place you
want.

Annotating PDF Documents

Figure 13 Preferences dialogue box

Other Free PDF-Marking Software

If you are not using Adobe Reader, you can try any one of the following
readers: PDF-XChange Editor and Nitro Reader. Both are equally
efficient in marking and annotating PDFs.

Figure 14 Two more PDF readers