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A
Anonymous
June 24, 2011
Question

Remove unnecessary 'comment icon' on highlight comment.

  • June 24, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 52114 views

There's no reason for a obtrusive yellow speech-bubble to notify the user that the text you highlighted is interactive, especially when it covers other text and doesn't match the color or opacity you selected for the highlight.

I fail to understand why it's so difficult to just add a comment to a bit of text without there being some icon, (from a very limited menu), be it star, or note, or arrow, or circle.  Do roll-over pop-outs in web browsers attached to anchor tags require icons?  No.  They take the anchor attributes because that's all they are, anchors, and they need no other.

Sorry for sounding petulant, but I've been fighting to find a way to create a simple bit of hot text with a call-out for most of the day and I've had no luck (well, I lie...  I've been able to underline the text w/o an icon.

    6 replies

    H
    Hans35902882uhce
    Participant
    March 8, 2024

    Disabling
    Edit => Preferences => Enable text indicators and tooltips
    in Acrobat Reader removed the sticky notes icons for me. 

    However, I would like to store this info with the document. 

    N
    natanitteb
    Participant
    June 30, 2020

    in the help menu type in comments --> pdf comments. A little windowtab will pop up and click the button on the top right hand corner and delete all comments 🙂 

    K
    kskag10533477
    Participant
    July 21, 2017

    on adobe acrobat X:

    edit/preferences/commenting:     uncheck : copy selected text into highlight

      D
      DC123
      Participant
      October 26, 2016

      Go to Edit, Preferences and remove the check for Enable text indicators and tool tips.  The bubble is gone, the highlight is still there, and if you click on it, the comment box will open.

        G
        gbc1965
        Participant
        January 15, 2020

        this is the only correct answer to this issue. i realize this is an old post, but 3 1/2 years later it still holds true. thank you.

          K
          Kari5FB3
          Participant
          January 24, 2021

          Agreed! Thank you!

            C
            cindybev
            Participant
            December 8, 2015

            My Acrobat started including the post it note spontaneously. I was able to make that stop by going to Preferences, the Comments, and unchecking the box that said include highlight texted in a note. It was driving me crazy before that.

              D
              Dave Merchant
              Legend
              July 3, 2011

              The "sticky note" icon and the highlight annotation are separate things.

              If you apply a highlight to a portion of text but do not add anything in the accompanying comment's note field, there is no icon.

              If you type something in the note, the icon appears to indicate that the highlight has an attached sub-comment, containing your note.

              It's just the way PDF files work. Annotations must have a placeholder on the page, even if they're parented to another type of annotation.

              A
              Anonymous
              July 3, 2011

              Thank you.... the point is that it is unnecessary.   Whether one highlights the text or underlines it, or simply changes the color, there's -already- and indicator that there's a note attached.

              I don't agree with this because Acrobat doesn't agree with it.  There's no difference between the Underline and Highlight functionality excepting that the indication that there is something special about the Highlighted text is even more apparent than the Underlined text, and yet, -there is no icon for the underline- and -there is an icon for the highlight-.  Exact same tool, slightly different visual text attribute.  It's not at all necessary and it obfuscates the document.

              Which is more obviously special text that would have an annotation attached?

              Underlined Text

              or

              Highlighted Text

              Which therefore creates more need of a silly icon?  The answer is -neither-   The presence of an annotation is already indicated.

              Highlighted Text Is unnecessary *chuckle*

              Thanks!

                D
                Dave Merchant
                Legend
                July 4, 2011

                The Acrobat X Annotations panel explains it a little clearer:

                The second-left on the top row is the "regular" Highlight tool - this draws the colored block over a text selection without any sticky note attached; it's all it can do (which is why the icon doesn't have a speech bubble overlay, as the next two have).

                The bottom row contains text annotations. The first four do not display the sticky note icon even with a note attached, they simply display a tooltip (or open the note itself if you double-click them), so again there's no speech bubble on the icon. The fifth button is the "text note" tool, and this is the annotation type Acrobat uses if you type something into the popup field of a "regular" highlight, and hence this is why you see the highlight and the tiny speech bubble icon on the page. What started life as a "highlight" has become a "text note" as a result of entering something into the note field.

                We've been asked a couple of times why Acrobat needs two versions of the highlight tool, and it's all down to this ability of the second type to contain a note.

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