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Participant
August 12, 2025
Question

Need to fix mistake in PDF with Reader-enabled commenting

  • August 12, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 108 views

We have a PDF of a book that was created with FrameMaker. We want the book to be Reader enabled for commenting so that the users can click on the pages and type their own notes. We did that and had a successful PDF, but then noticed a mistake in the setting of the initial view of the document properties where it wasn't set to open to Bookmarks and Page panels. The person who did the book is saying the Reader-enabling is preventing her from being able to just remove the security (we know the password) and fix the setting and then re-doing the enabling and final security again. Is there any reason she is having problems doing a simple Remove security and doing the needed fix? I do not know the exact version of Acrobat Pro she is using, but I'm sure the Reader enabling is still able to be done on the book. The security settings on the draft with the mistake all worked fine to be able for Reader to do the commenting.

2 replies

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2025

Reader-enabling is a thing of the past. Only people with extremely old versions of Reader will get any benefit from it. You really don't need to apply it.

Amal.
Legend
August 12, 2025

Hi there,

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing.

Once a PDF is Reader-enabled (so people can comment in free Adobe Reader), Acrobat locks some parts of the file. This can make it hard to change things like the Initial View, even if you know the password.


To fix this:

  • Best option: Go back to the original PDF before it was Reader-enabled. Change the Initial View there, then Reader-enable it again.
  • If you only have the enabled file: Open it in Acrobat Pro, use File > Save As to make a new copy, remove the security, change the Initial View, then enable it again.

Reader-enabling should always be the very last step after you’ve made all other changes.

 

Hope this information will help 

 

~Amal