Cannot change comment author

[Calle27858178js7u]

Hi, I have an issue with changing author name to comments. I have sent out a PDF document for review and received alot comments from a handfull of people. Each of them have returened with a separate pdf-file with thier comments. In two out of five PDFs I have been able to change the Author preference from their MS default name their actual names. But in three of the PDFs I cannot manage to change the name. I get the pop-up to open and fill in the Authour name, but the change does not follow through.

One thing I have noticed is a slight difference on the looks of the comment properties pop-up window on the ones that I can change author on compared to the ones where I cannot change the author name.

This  is how it looks on the ones where I CAN change the comment Author name:

And below is how it looks on the PDFs where I CANNOT change comment Author:

Any clues?

Kind regards

/Calle

[AkanchhaS]

Hi @Calle27858178js7u 

Thanks a lot for sharing the detailed information along with the screenshots.

Some of the documents give you limited options in commenting preferences, and not being able to change the Author's name is because of Document's security. Which doesn't allow you to make any changes to it.

Or the other reason is the file is still being shared. So it would help if you unshared it first before making such changes.

Open the file that doesn't allow you to change commenting preferences> Ctrl+D right, click Document Properties> Security> Document Restriction summary check what all options are allowed. 

If it still doesn't;t help. Then can you share a sample file with us?

Thanks,

Akanchha 

[Calle27858178js7u]

Hi Akanchaa. Thanks for swift reply.
How do I find out if the file is being shared? And if so, how to unshare it?

As for the Sucurity settings I am not relly clear on what settings to look for/change. This is how it lookes on one of the PDFs where I cannot change comment Author:

KR

/Calle

[try67]

The Author property is under the General tab, not under Appearance. Also, I'm not really seeing any major differences between the two screenshots, apart from those caused by the fact that these are different kinds of comments (the first is a Sticky Note, the second is a Highlight), so it's not really clear what you're referring to...

[Calle27858178js7u]

Hi,

Yes I know Author property is set under the General tab. But there both documents look the same. See below:

General tab in document where I CAN edit Author:

General tab in document where I CANNOT change Author:

The point I wanted to make about the Appearance tab is that in the document where I CAN change Author, there is a drop down menue where i can edit also the type of comment whereas in the document where I CANNOT change Author there is no information about the type of the comment except the color and opacity. It almos seems as the document where I CAN change the Author preference is more "intelligent" and have more Meta-data options.

KR

/Calle

[try67]

Again, these differences in the Appearance tab are caused by the different type of comment. A sticky-note has an icon, while a highlight does not. This has nothing to do with your issue.

So what exactly happens when you type a value in the Author field on the second computer? Does an error message appear? Does it let you type into it at all? Does it allow you to press OK, but the field is empty later on? You need to provide more details...

[Calle27858178js7u]

Ahhh, got it regarding the type of comment, thanks.
So when I open the comment Properties dialogue box I click the General tab. There both the Author and Subject fields are empty and I can type whatever I want to them, but nothing happens to the note after I click OK. I do not get any error message. If I open the Properties dialoge box again, both input fields under General are empty again...

[try67]

OK, that's more informative... Does this happen with all comments? Try creating a new one and see if you can edit it. Also, go to Edit - Preferences - Commenting and make sure that "Always use Log-In Name for Author name" is ticked off, then try again.

[Calle27858178js7u]

"Always use Log-In Name for Author name" is ticked off. I created two new comments, one Highlight and one Sticky note. I could change Authour for both of them to any name I want and it follows through and works fine after clicking OK.

When trying to change any of the "old" comments it does not wotk to change Author.

[try67]

This would suggest there's a corruption in the comments of the file. Try exporting them to an FDF file, delete them, and then import them back into the PDF.

[Calle27858178js7u]

Did so, unfortunately the issue remain...

[Calle27858178js7u]

Noted another strange thing. It seems the issue is only connected to Highlight comments. There where two Textbox comments in the document and on both of them it was possible to change Author...

[try67]

Just delete them manually, then, and then create them again.

[Calle27858178js7u]

Well there are som 50-70 Highlight comments on each of the the remaining 3 documents. It will take me a long time to delete and re-create manually...

[Calle27858178js7u]

This is now becoming even more odd. I deleted a Highlight comment in order to create it manually again. The Comment disappeared from the Comments list, but it remain in the PDF as yellow-marked text??! When I hover over it, it still shows a pop-up with the comment.

When I try to double click it  I get an error message "Invalid annotation object"...

[try67]

Like I said, they are corrupted...

[Calle27858178js7u]

If comments are made in Adobe Acrobat Reader and not Adobe Acrobat Pro, could that perhaps cause this issue?

[try67]

Not likely, no. They were probably added in some third-party application, not in Reader.