Review a PDF

When you receive an email invitation to a PDF review, the invitation typically includes the PDF as an attachment or provides a URL to the PDF. Alternatively, some invitations include a Forms Data Format (FDF) attachment. When opened, an FDF file configures your review settings and opens the PDF in Acrobat.

PDFs in a review have special features, including commenting tools and a document message bar with instructions. Use the commenting tools to add comments to the PDF and then submit them. Either publish the comments to a comment server where others can see them, or send comments as an email attachment to the review initiator.

Note: It’s possible to receive a PDF that doesn’t include special features. If so, add your comments using tools from the Annotations and Drawing Markup panels in the Comment pane. Then save the PDF and send it back. (See Annotations and drawing markup tools overview.)

To review the PDF later, reopen it from the Tracker. Doing so ensures that your comments are added to the tracked copy of the PDF, and that the initiator receives your comments. If you don’t send or publish your comments right away, save the PDF before you close it to avoid losing your comments. Until the initiator receives your comments, they appear only in your local copy of the PDF and aren’t visible to other reviewers. For a video on the basics of reviewing, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid_014_acrx_en

If you review a PDF using Acrobat 9 or earlier, or Reader 9 or earlier, some features are not available.

Join a review

  1. In your email application, open the PDF by clicking the URL or double-clicking the attachment (PDF or FDF).
  2. Do one or more of the following, if prompted:

    • Log in to Acrobat.com with your Adobe ID and password.

    • Click Connect in the Shared Review dialog box.

    • Click OK in the Welcome To Shared Review window. This window shows the review deadline, participants, whether each reviewer has made any comments, and the comment server location.

    • Type your name, email address, company name, and job title.

  3. Save the file to a location that you can find easily, such as the desktop.
  4. Add comments to the PDF using tools in the Comment pane. To delete a comment, select it and press Delete. (You can only delete the comments that you made.)
  5. Do all of the following that apply:

    • If you’re notified that new comments from other reviewers are available, click the message. New comments appear in the PDF.

    • To find out if new comments are available from other reviewers, click the Check For New Comments button .

  6. Submit your comments by clicking Publish Comments or Send Comments To Review Initiator in the document message bar.

    When you send comments, a PDF containing your comments is sent as an email attachment to the review initiator. When you publish comments, your comments are saved to the comment server.

Options in the document message bar

The options in the document message bar depend on how the initiator set up the review and whether you can access the comment server.

For information about the different types of reviews, see About managed PDF reviews.

Check For New Comments
Prompts Acrobat to synchronize comments between the comment server and the local hard drive. If you don’t click this button, Acrobat checks for new comments every 10 minutes if the document is open and every hour if the document is closed.

Merge Comments
Copies the comments in the open PDF to your copy. This option is available only for PDFs you receive from reviewers in email-based reviews.

Publish Comments
Available only in shared reviews. Uploads your new comments to the comment server. This button is disabled if the review has ended.

Save An Archive Copy
Available only in shared reviews, when a review has ended. Saves a copy of the document with review comments to your hard drive.

Send Comments
Creates an email message addressed to the review initiator that contains the commented PDF as an attachment. This option is always available for reviewers in email-based reviews. It appears in shared reviews if the reviewer has chosen to work offline or if an attempt to connect to the comment server has failed.

Save & Work Offline
Saves the file for you to work offline. This option is available for browser-based reviews set up using Adobe LiveCycle.

Send & Receive
Synchronizes comments. This option is available for browser-based reviews set up using Adobe LiveCycle.

Status
An icon that displays the connected state of the comment server. The icon appears as the last attempt successful icon , the last attempt unsuccessful icon , or the attempting to connect icon . If you click the icon, a menu with additional options appears: Track Reviews opens the Tracker; Save As Archive Copy saves a copy of the PDF that is no longer connected to the review; Work Offline lets you work in offline mode, in which you can make comments but cannot publish them until you switch back to online mode. To switch to online mode, click Reconnect To Server.