How do I view comments in Acrobat

[brentc61970858]

Recently send a PDF file to a friend for editing. He added several comment boxes with his thoughts in them and sent the file back. When I open adobe to view the comments I am not able to see them. I can see where he added the boxes, but not his comments. How will I be able to view this information? Thanks.

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[Dave__M]

Can you tell us a few more details?  What program are you using (Reader? Acrobat Pro?  What version number?).  And do you know what program your friend used to create his comments?

In Acrobat Pro DC, you should see a listing of all of the document's comments in the Comment Panel when the commenting tools are active.  Content should be visible (truncated long comments), and double clicking on the on-page icon for a comment should open a pop-up window with the entire comment text.

If yours is not behaving similarly, can you post a screenshot so we can see what you see?

Thanks.

My best,

Dave

[brentc61970858]

Hi Dave,

I am using Adobe Reader (2015 version). I am not sure what not sure what program he used to create the comments but they do show up like in your screen shot. When I double click on the icon nothing happens though.

Here is a screen shot of my own

[Dave__M]

I am wondering if your friend used the highlight comment tool (see the yellow around the text), and did not actually input any text.

Take a look at this screenshot.  It is from the Comments Panel on the right once you select the Commenting tools.

I think your document may contain only comments like the middle of my 3, in which I used the highlighter tool, but did not double-click on the highlight afterwards to enter a text comment.  Do you see a listing of your comments in your Commenting Panel?  If so, is it described as a Highlighted Text comment?

My best,

Dave

[brentc61970858]

That may be the case Dave. When I look at the comment panel there is nothing showing up at all. He would have highlighted the text and then added a sticky note to suggest corrections, but maybe he didn't double click on the highlight part to lock the text in? Anyway, long story short I can see what he highlighted, but not what he wrote.

I may have to ask him to send it again. Which will be a huge pain. oh well.

[CarinaVR]

I have exactly the same problem, expect it is my own document! I can see the bubbles where I added comments, and then saved the document. But the bubbles does not open up when trying to click on them. And the Comments toolbar sows no comments. The bubbles appear not interactive in any way; but rather seems like a static symbol added there.

[try67]

The comments have been flattened. Did you flatten or re-print the file, or something like that?

[CarinaVR]

The phrase 'flattened' explains it really well!

As far as I am aware I did not flatten or re-print it; I simply saved it the evening, and tried opening it the next day.

Any way to get it unflattened?

[try67]

Generally speaking no, but it depends a lot on what caused it to happen... Can you share the file in question with us (using Dropbox, Google Drive, Adobe Cloud, etc.)?

[CarinaVR]

I can the share the file I have in Dropbox: Dropbox - Dissertation-de Chavonnes Vrugt.pdf

[try67]

Did you open the file in Apple Preview at some point?

[CarinaVR]

I likely have, given that both my laptop and desktop are Apple products.

[try67]

Preview is a buggy app that corrupts PDF files in various ways. I'm afraid the damage it did to your file is not reversible.

If you don't have a backup copy with the comments from before you saved the file in Preview, you're out of luck.

[CarinaVR]

I hope then I have one on the desktop; will see tomorrow!

Thank you very much for your help and patience - much appreciated!!