Adobe Reader X - Disable Comments feature

Jay,

hurm.... Why would you want to do so?

The best thing I can think of would be to rename Annots.api in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\plug_ins

This change will remove the ability to comment (create annotations) in an PDF but will not remove the Comments menu item.

Again, I would seriously consider the business reasons as to why you are doing this for all situations - not just for the current one in question.

Thanks

Doug

Doug many of us have business requirements to lock down certain aspects of Adobe Reader. Case in point the Comments button has the potential to increase calls to the help desk with drive up costs. It has been my experience that less is more when it comes to certain applications like Adobe Reader. I too would like to know if the comlete removal of the Comments button, from the toolbar, is possible.

Josh,

Your post is one area that I will, respectfully, completely disagree with you. I understand the concept of reducing support calls (I have 30K installations in eight languages in over 100 countries). I also understand the concept of 'lock down'.

However, I have found that if you remove functionality that is openly and publicly advertised on Adobe's web site you are just asking for trouble.

The only time I have ever substantially removed a major component of Acrobat or Reader is with the LiveCycle Designer tool. So, we built two installations - with and without LCD. This action was done simply because only a narrow group of customers needed LCD and it being in the package was causing confusion.

My suggestion would be to train the document creators that if they don't want people to add comments then they should lock the document down at creation time.

Adobe had an ad campaign with Acrobat 5 that went something like "You really expect me to annotate, comment, post-it, mark-up, fold, mail, and fax this back to you?" Adobe has given you a tool to allow your employees to work smarter not harder. To be more efficient and effective.

Think about it.
Doug

I too want to disable this function. maybe I am looking at the wrong solution, but as soon as I got to reader 9 and then 10 some of my computers will not load the print dialogue box when I hit file/print. one would take several minutes. I went in and disabled everything I could that had to do with comments, and it fixed the problem. Now I have a second computer having a worse problem, that is the dialogue box never comes up and I get an error. I am trying the same fix and it is not fixing the problem. And no, checking print as image does not help. Last month I googled it and just kept disabling stuff and finally the problem went away. Now I can't get it. All other programs print fine. all I need to do is open and print pdfs there is no value for my small business in any other features in this program. As the previous poster said, sometimes less is better. Any advice?

While I have found this feature useful, there is something not quite right with it (or perhaps Reader X overall). I added comments to a PDF and saved it. When opening it back up and trying to edit or add new comments Reader X just locks up. So, I can see the need to want this disabled when deploying out to users.

Bonjour,

I have Adobe Reader 10.1. I would like to disable only feature "Convert PDF to Word Online".

Regards

You might want to look at Adobe's tools for inatalling Acrobat/Reader.

Enterprise deploymentDeploying Adobe Acrobat and Reader 9 Video by Joel Geraci

1- I used "Customization Wizard (Win)" for windows 7 to customize "AcroRead.msi" to give "AcroRead.mst" = everything is OK & I have not "Convert PDF to Word Online".
2- I applied " AdbeRdrUpd1010_MUI.msp" and the icon "Convert PDF to Word Online" appears.
3- I used a registry key & a script to control all installations in PCs.
4- At this time, I don't know what is a key I need to use for Hide "Convert PDF to Word Online".

JAYB,

We ran into this problem as well. When both Acrobat and Reader open their printer dialogs they do something almost no other app does - they interrogate all the instanced printers on the machine. Why, I haven't the foggiest idea. If one or more printers are difficult to reach, busy or have any other connectivity related issues it can seriously bog down that part of the application. What we've had to do, in many instances, is just delete the printers that aren't being used. Especially if they are in a far-flung network segment that has high latency to it. That simple thing seems to clear things up.

-Doug

Huong,

I would agree, the primary method is to repacking using Da Customizer - Joel's show is pretty good intro to the tool.

Another option is to write a small chunk of Application level JavaScript that removes the menu items. The downside to this is that you have to have folder and menu level JavaScript items enabled. Also there can be a very short window (second or two) there the items appear on the menu before the JS code and finish executing.

It's a true hack - but knowing what's behind all the doors can be just as important as the right door.

Doug

You can use JavaScript to hide the menu item and toolbar button, but you will need to know the exact name of the menu item and tool bar button used by Acrobat JS and this name is not always the visible menu name or tool bar text. The Croat JS API Reference has information on obtaining this value. As noted, once you perform this task, you will lose these items for all openings of Acrobat/Reader and this can be very inconvenient when working with outside organizations or individuals.

app.hideMenuItem({cName: "Name of Menu Item"});
app.hideToolbarButton({cName:"Name of Tool Bar Button"});

More information is available in the Acrobat JS API Reference Manual. You can download your free copy from the Adobe Developer Connection site.

George - Thanks for digging out the appropriate methods. One thing to keep in mind with app. level methods is that they tend to require being executed as folder-level scrips. In other words, you cannot place them as doc, event, page or field level scripts (inside of a PDF) and have them work their magic on the application. That firewall was put up a long time ago. There are a few (e.g. menu and title (F8 & F9), full screen, etc.) that do work.On thing that I 100% agree with George on - unless your PDF has an artistic need to not use the default settings that the customer has set, don't change them! Anything you do that gets in the way of their getting at your information (meaning the way they normally do things) give them a reason to goto someone else. What you are saying to the customer is 'I know better than you how to view this PDF!' If you feel you need to drastically alter the UI for some reason, explain what you are doing, how to get it back, and maybe a why would be helpful. Lest your customer go to your competition due to the difficulty in dealing with your work.

-Doug

I found them when I looked at why Adobe Reader was so much different on a Windows 7 test machine than on our desktop systems.

If this script is applied to systems with Acrobat present, then commenting will be pretty much useless on those systems too.

If these scripts are put on employee systems, then management is sending a very strong message to their employees about how trusted they are. And it will not have a positive affect on the employees's attitudes.

Agreed.