How Adobe Acrobat deals with PDFs that are write protected

Question

My workflow frequently involves downloading PDFs from my university's library site into a reference manager and then annotating them.

Many of the PDFs download with Read-only privileges. In fact, it is always possible to change the privilege to Read-Write. Preview allows one easily to unlock the file on Save without having to exit the program:

Dropbox - save locked file in preview.png

Adobe Acrobat DC makes it much more difficult to save:

Dropbox - save locked file in adobe.png

I must save to a different folder, close the file, change the privilege to Read-Write, delete the old PDF from its place in the reference manager, re-import it under the right entry there, and then reopen the PDF file.

Does Mac OS make it possible for you to allow users to change the privilege from within Adobe? If so, this would be a significant improvement.

Thom Parker · Accepted Answer

File permissions are outside of Acrobat's capabilities. The permission changes needs to be done either on the remote library, or at download time before it is viewed.

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