My last post explained the basics of how to use Adobe Acrobat DC’s comment and mark-up tools. Today’s post explains how to reply to comments and mark-ups in Adobe Acrobat DC through written responses and by changing the status of individual or multiple comments and mark-ups.
As mentioned in the previous post, Acrobat’s comment and mark-up tools can’t change the document. Instead, they function like handwritten copyediting marks on paper—the tools can be used to indicate what should be changed, but you have to manually create those changes in the original document. Therefore, you should use these tools on a secondary copy of your document rather than the original document.
Please note that these steps are for Adobe Acrobat DC running on Windows. The steps are similar for Acrobat XI.
Reply to Comments and Mark-Ups in Adobe Acrobat DC
You can reply to other reviewers’ comments or mark-ups in two ways:
Method One
1. Right click on the comment or mark-up in the text.
2. Select Reply.
3. Write your response in the pop-up note.
Method Two
1. Select the comment or mark-up in the comments list in the right-hand pane.
2. Select Reply.
3. Write your response in the sidebar.
The other reviewers will then be able to see your reply (after you save your changes to community storage or send them the shared file, of course).
Set the Status as Accepted, Cancelled, Completed, or Rejected
There are also two ways to set the status of individual comments and mark-ups:
Method One—Individual Comments and Mark-Ups
1. Right click on the comment or mark-up in the text.
2. Select Set Status.
3. Select Accepted, Cancelled, Completed, or Rejected. (The default status is None.)
Method Two—Individual Comments and Mark-Ups
1. Right click on the comment or mark-up in the comments list in the right-hand pane.
2. Select Set Status.
3. Select Accepted, Cancelled, Completed, or Rejected. (The default status is None.)
If you have multiple comments or mark-ups that require the same status, you can change them all simultaneously. Again, there are two methods to accomplish this task:
Method One—Multiple Comments and Mark-Ups
1. Select the first comment or mark-up in the text.
2. Press the Ctrl key as you select the other comments or mark-ups.
3. Right click on one of the selected comments or mark-ups.
4. Select Set Status.
5. Select Accepted, Cancelled, Completed, or Rejected. (The default status is None.)
Method Two—Multiple Comments and Mark-Ups
1. Select the first comment or mark-up in the comments list in the right-hand pane.
2. Press the Ctrl key as you select the other comments or mark-ups.
(Alternately, you can select a consecutive group by selecting the first comment or mark-up in the group, pressing the Shift key, and then selecting the last one in the group.)
3. Right click on one of the selected comments or mark-ups.
4. Select Set Status.
5. Select Accepted, Cancelled, Completed, or Rejected. (The default status is None.)
When the other reviewers open the shared document, they will then see your replies and any actions you have taken in the original document. For example, if you set a strikethrough as accepted, the other reviewers will know that you agree that the content in question should be deleted; but if you set a strikethrough as completed, the other reviewers will know that you have already manually deleted the content in the original document.
The status itself doesn’t change the content—which is definitely a good thing when multiple reviewers with differing opinions are working on the same document!
Update: If you’d like to see Acrobat DC in action, check out the videos in my “How to Use Adobe Acrobat DC” YouTube series. You can find additional tutorials about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.
Here are a few examples:
Hi, I just read your very helpful posts on using Acrobat DC’s markup tools. I’m curious as to whether there’s a way to search for other people’s edit suggestions. Acrobat’s suggested edits are not nearly as visible as Word’s edits, no doubt partially because with Word they’re actually changes. I’m looking at these documents that people have sent to me and worry that I’m going to miss some of the suggestions.
Thank you for stopping by! You can use the Filter button (it looks like a funnel) in the right-hand comment pane to select individual reviewers. The selected reviewer’s comments and edits should then appear in the pane. I hope that helps!
Thanks much for the assistance!