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limiting commenting

Forum Index > Collaboration & Commenting > limiting commenting
2009-07-06 08:13:23
ngilleland
Registered: Jul 6 2009
Posts: 3
Answered

I work in a family run business where we are creating PDF files with fillable form fields, etc.

With the way the text is formatted in the file, I need to enable commenting for them to complete the activity, but we don't want all of the commenting tools to be available to them. Is there a way to set security measures on the file that would limit the commenting tools to the underline tool and the cross-through tool when the customer opens it on their computer (most likely Reader or possibly in a few cases Pro)?

I am working in Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 on a Mac computer. Any help with this is appreciated!

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.0, Macintosh
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2009-07-06 20:47:26
#1
UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
In short, no. The only way you could possibly restrict a client's commenting tools to a certain set of actions would be to write and deploy a custom plugin. The standard security model only has an on/off global switch, and Javascript inside a document can't block the user from clicking on menu items.
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2009-07-07 11:47:16
#2
ngilleland
Registered: Jul 6 2009
Posts: 3
Is writing a custom plugin legal and if so, what kind of code would I have to have someone write the plugin in? Any help is appreciated.
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2009-07-08 01:16:20
#3
UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
Writing plugins for Reader and Acrobat is perfectly legal provided you abide by the terms of Adobe's SDK agreement (i.e. don't permit operations in Reader that would normally require Acrobat, etc.) - however writing them is a far from trivial task as Reader and Acrobat are multi-platform, so if you're distributing the PDFs to a random customer base you'd have to create versions for Win32/64, Mac and Linux. You'd also need to write a second plugin for your end so you can apply the restrictions and work out how to force the PDF to a safe condition if the customer didn't install it (as you're trying to change the default condition, not add a new feature). I very much doubt it's be worth the effort, as most people will just refuse to install add-on software from someone they've never heard of, and in that case their tools would all work unless you did something like custom-encrypted the PDF so it can't be opened at all.
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