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100pk
100pk
Inspiring
October 23, 2018
Answered

Importing comments from pdf not working

  • October 23, 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 9487 views

I just encountered a problem in Acrobat where the 'finished'-box has been transferred into a right-click-menu (wtf and posted in Acrobat forum).

I thought maybe try importing them into InDesign as that is one of the greta new features…

I made sure the pdf was exported from the last ID CC but importing gave a nice error.

What am I doing wrong?

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Laubender

      Just asked: my client is placing comments in Apples Preview.

      That probably explains why comments are not transferred as expected.

      Too bad Adobe is not working with 3rd parties to make sure this works as expected

      (or 3rd parties not making sure their product is compliant with Adobe)!


      Hi Paul,

      so basically the workflow is:

      You export to PDF from InDesign CC 2019.

      Client opens PDF with Apple's Preview.

      Client is doing comments with Apple's Preview.

      At that stage you get the PDF back and you try to import the PDF to the PDF Comments panel.

      That will totally fail like presented with reply #2 here.

      Then you open the PDF in Acrobat Pro DC, latest version.

      Some, not all, comments are missing perhaps due to commenting technology issues or incompatibilities in commenting systems of Apple's Preview app and Adobe Acrobat.


      You save the PDF with a new name.

      You can import the new PDF with InDesign's PDF Comments panel.

      Regards,
      Uwe

      5 replies

      W
      wideEyedPupil
      Inspiring
      October 31, 2018

      When exporting a PDF of a book, InDesign will not import the file to any of the chapter files in the book. Which takes the fun out of exporting a single PDF, not a bunch of single chapter file PDFs. I'm going to post a seperate thread in forums on this, and feature request it.

      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 31, 2018

      Hi wideEyedPupil ,

      I also found some issues with, let's say: concattenated PDFs from multiple InDesign documents.

      Not only from book files. It's a particular workflow that will give you headaches when working with PDF Comments.

      Come back here and post the link to your new thread so that we can discuss issues.

      Thanks,
      Uwe

      W
      wideEyedPupil
      Inspiring
      October 31, 2018

      Hi @Laubender,

      I was about to post about the issue of PDFs exports from books and guess what? I tried again with a new file and it worked. I was also able to change the PDF for a second round of edits and reimport it. In the comments palette it lists the PDF files being linked to and you can filter in or out any of the linked files. They aren't active links like placed picture files though, you need to reimport and you get a warning that you may end up with duplicate comments.

      Still not clear to me if you change the file name like "Book 1.pdf" to "Book 1 — Alastair's comments.pdf" it will still import.

      The comments will indicate which file they are in from the book if that file is open but not if that file is closed.

      I need to do some more tests before I post. It's kind depressing to me how unstable InDesign has become and that when they release a major new feature (which doesn't happen very often for ID or AI these days) it's buggy as hell. Adobe was always a fairly conservative corporation and that at least meant reasonably stable software, if not rapidly advancing development efforts, but now it seems like each new version brings new bugs and new features that aren't reliable.

      raymondh93818467
      raymondh93818467
      Inspiring
      October 30, 2018

      I tried to use Indesign CC2019 to import  PDF comment ,It hints "The PDF you are trying to import is created from another Indesign document. Select the correct PDF to continue.".  The PDF comment I added on Acrobat DC (2019.008.20080), and I tried to save the PDF with a new name, but it failed as well. Why? How can I create the right PDF comment? ! !

      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 30, 2018

      Hi Raymond,

      please outline the steps you did one by one.

      From PDF creation to import of the commented PDF to the PDF Comments panel.

      Note: The PDF has to be exported by InDesign CC 2019.

      Printing to PDF, printing to PostScript and then distill to PDF, export as EPS, then distill to PDF will not work.

      Only exporting to PDF with InDesign CC 2019.

      Regards,
      Uwe

      raymondh93818467
      raymondh93818467
      Inspiring
      October 30, 2018

      My operation steps is:

      Create new page in the Indesign CC2019   >>   Export Adobe PDF(print)  >> Open the PDF file exported by Indesign CC2019 using Acrobat Pro DC (2019.008.20080) and add Comment to the PDF using the Add sticky note tool in the Comment function  >> Save the PDF  >>  Open the PDF Comments function in the Windows menu of the Indesign CC2019 software and click "Import PDF Comments" to select the newly saved PDF  >> Indesign CC2019 hints "The PDF you are trying to import is created from another Indesign document. Select the correct PDF to continue.".

        Where is the problem, please?

      P
      Pijnacker01
      Participating Frequently
      October 23, 2018

      Apple Preview is widely used though to mark-up and annotate PDF documents. As a side note, our (Markzware's) PDF2DTP will convert a PDF with comments, annotations and the likes into a new InDesign document. There you will get the speech bubbles or text, whatever was annotated, in with the layout, back as an InDesign document.

      May be interesting for some here.

      Here is a video on how it works (note, also now works in CC 2019 of InDesign):

      Convert Interactive PDFs to InDesign with the NEW PDF2DTP - YouTube

        L
        Community Expert
        LaubenderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 23, 2018

        100pk  wrote

        I just encountered a problem in Acrobat where the 'finished'-box has been transferred into a right-click-menu (wtf and posted in Acrobat forum). …

        Can you post the link to that discussion in the Acrobat forum?

        Regards,
        Uwe

        100pk
        100pkAuthor
        Inspiring
        October 23, 2018

        Where has the check box gone?!

        L
        Community Expert
        LaubenderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 23, 2018

        Hi 100pk ,

        sorry, I cannot see the issue you are facing in Acrobat with comments.

        Is it a missing checkbox in Acrobat's UI for commenting?

        Can you elaborate on the comments you are using and may or may not the cause that InDesign cannot import the PDF to the new PDF Comments panel? Can you make the PDF available for testing?

        Regards,
        Uwe

        Jongware
        Community Expert
        JongwareCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 23, 2018

        100pk  wrote

        .. but importing gave a nice error.

        Which was?

        100pk
        100pkAuthor
        Inspiring
        October 23, 2018

        Jongware
        Community Expert
        JongwareCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 23, 2018

        Oooh that's way worse than I was thinking. Sorry, no idea.

        (As with all such unhelpful errors, it's ironic that there only is an "OK" button to click. What's supposed to be okay about this?)

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