How to Handle Comments from Other Reviewers in a Shared Review in Adobe Acrobat

[mary_n_fingerlakes]

Hi! My company uses the Shared Review functionality in Adobe Acrobat, Version 2025.001.20997.

One of our offsite colleagues connects to the network via VPN. When he clicks Publish Comments, the following message displays:

He clicks No and then the following mesage displays:

He is not sure how to handle these messages. My suspicion is that he should click Yes in the first dialog box since other reviewers may have the document open at the same time. Is there any way to avoid getting this message or is it standard when working in a shared review?

I've read through some posts and found that VPN may cause issues with the shared reviews. I am not sure if that is what is happening here.

Is this a known issue and if so, does anyone know of any workarounds? Any clarification or feedback would be very much appreicated. 

Thank you!

[Randy Hagan]

It's more a matter of your remote reviewer attaching comments to the document under review.

"Publishing" comments adds your remote worker to the list of comments associated with the document — it identifies your remote reviewer as the person who made comments, and associates his identified review comments to the document presented for review. TL;DR — yes your reviewer should click the Yes button, and if he misses, he should click the Publish Comments button to add his review to the relevant document. It just adds him to the list and may give him access to the comments others have made to the document.

You can read more about what publishing comments does through the following link:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/share-and-review-documents/manage-reviews/publish-comments.h...

Forwarding that link may put him at ease.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[mary_n_fingerlakes]

Hi @Randy Hagan - thank you for the quick response. I'll give him these tips and hopefully we can avoid any issues in the future. 

[Randy Hagan]

To be fair, the text in those alert boxes isn't artfully phrased. I may go as far as say it instills fear rather than useful information. The link explains what's actually happening though, and should put him at ease.

Glad I could help. And if you have any issues in the future, feel free to come back and sound the alarm. There are lots of sharp folks around here who may be able to lend a hand.

Good luck,

Randy

[mary_n_fingerlakes]

Hi @Randy Hagan - I agree there! The message is a little misleading. 

Now that I have read your response again, I'm not sure if clicking Yes in the first dialog box is the right option for our situation. We want each comment to be identified with the original reviewer's name. If a reviewer clicks Yes when they see that message, won't Acrobat change the name of the original comment owners to the name of the person who is currently reviewing the document?

For example, I'm identified as Mary in the Comments pane, so if if I click Yes, won't all the comments (even ones from other reviewers) now show my name:

Another concern I have is why this reviewer is getting this message:

I've read other posts that indicate that the Comment server updates regularly, so a reviewer may need to refresh the page or go to another tab to ensure that all comments from other reviewers are added. Is this message an indication that other reviewers are trying to post comments but the server hasn't "caught up" with the comments in real time?

I hope this makes sense and perhaps some other folks can shed some light on this issue.

Thank you again for the help.

[Randy Hagan]

Publishing his comments would occur, and unattributed comments may be attributed to him. The bad news may be that his name is applied and some comments transfer anonymously. The good news is that you'll at least confirm all the comments. I'd suggest that everyone may need to learn how to publish comments. 

Maybe some remedial training is necessary for creating and maintaining your PDF review workflow. TeachUComp, among others, offer online tutorials and courses on reviewing documents with Acrobat. The following link is just one of several tutorials/teasers offered to inform users and possibly entice them to take deeper courses. I'd start with subscribing to their YouTube channel ands seeing how that fits with you. The following link is to one of their tutorials on reviewing documents with Acrobat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf2SwKXU1ZUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iP1kwJ6daw

Maybe this will help.

Randy

[mary_n_fingerlakes]

Hi @Randy Hagan - Thanks for the suggestions.  They are greatly appreciated. I'll definitely subscribe TeachUComp and see if we can make some inroads with our process.