Comment and Markup Tools

In Acrobat you can use them at any time, but if you have a user that has Reader and you want them to add comments to a PDF then you need to use Acrobat to enable the comment rights for Reader.

So if I don't have Acrobat I can't enable it?

No.

Alright, thank you.

I am using Adobe Reader 9.1.1 to read downloaded court documents. I would like to highlight some sections of these documents for future reference. It does not seem that these documents are comment enabled when downloaded. Is there a way to enable comments and view the comment toolbar so I can highlight these documents?

Hi,

To reiterate what George identified; [b]no version of Adobe Reader can comment/review enable a PDF file[/b].

To accomplish what you want obtain the appropriate Acrobat release to open the file and enable comment/review with Reader.

Appropriate Acrobat releases are:
Acrobat 7 Professional
Acrobat 3D Version 7
Acrobat 8 Professional
Acrobat 3D Version 8
Acrobat 9 Professional
Acrobat 9 Pro Extended

You may want to consider a download and install of a trial version of the one of the Acrobat 9.x products listed above.
If your activity is long term, with a frequent periodicity, then purchase of one of these may warrent serious consideration.

Be well...

The same holds true for the typewriter function, correct? I have only Reader now. I should order 8.0 or 9.0 Professional in order to type and/or edit my pdfs?

Hi lulu bell,

To use the Typerwriter tool in Adobe Reader, the PDF must be enabled for that with Acrobat Professional. So, the person who created the PDF would have had to enable it for you to use that feature in Adobe Reader.

If you have Acrobat Standard or Professional or higher you have access to the Typewriter tool and it does not matter if the PDF is enabled or not, provided it does not have security applied to prevent edting/changes.

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.windjack.com
www.pdfscripting.com

Many thanks, Dimitri!

Just to confirm . . . so if I "scan" a document from my printer to my computer, and I have Acrobat Professional 8.0, I should be able to open the document with Professional and immediately have access to my typewriter?

Hi lulu bell,

Yes, that is correct. However, I am not sure you can purchase Acrobat 8 Pro anymore since Acrobat 9 is the current version. If you do not already have Acrobat 8 Pro, you may have to get 9 instead, but the typewriter tool works in both. There is a free 30 trial if you want to download Acrobat 9 Pro and test it out first.

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.windjack.com
www.pdfscripting.com

Thanks for your helpful information, Dimitri.

I have Acrobat 8 Professional. If I create a PDF from a Word document that has markup still visible and then enable the PDF for commenting and save, the Comments & Markup tool is unavailable when the PDF is later opened in Adobe Reader 9. But when you view the Document Extensions in the PDF in Reader, it states that you can add comments and markup to this document. So why is the Comments & Markup tool not available?

I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. I want to use markup and comment tools in pdf documents. The tools are grey out, not available. However, if I open the documents in Acrobat Pro 8, the tools are available and I can add comments and mark ups. The security setting indicates that commenting is allowed. What can I do to make the markup and comment tools available in Acrobat Pro 9 ?

I have found the solution to my own problem and I am posting the solution for others who might encounter the same issue. I was viewing PDF in PDF/A format. I was able to change this by going to Preferences, Documents, PDF/A view mode, and selecting never. This way I am now able to highlight text and add comments.