Searching PDFs for Markups

[Guest]

Background: I work for an engineering team as their CAD/Tool support. Many of their functions include marking up standards using tools other than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Once these DGN files have been marked up, they are loaded into a batch program (ScanView PDF) that converts them to plottable/printable drawings. Many other teams like to order drawings that have markups but are currently constrained to visual inspection of each PDF and manually ciphering them out.

Question: When a markup is added to a PDF, does it create a special attribute in the properties of the file to denote that it contains a markup/comment? If so, is this attribute common among any PDF file that contains a markup/comment and can it be searched for via program search functions?

I hope I've conveyed this the best way possible. It sounds like it may be unachievable but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Thank you,

Trevor Sedlock

CAD/Tool Specialist

Transmission Engineering

[try67]

> When a markup is added to a PDF, does it create a special attribute in the properties of the file to denote that it contains a markup/comment?

- Yes, in a way. It's not a specific true/false flag, but it is something that can be located within the structure of the PDF file.

> If so, is this attribute common among any PDF file that contains a markup/comment

- That depends on the application used to create the comments, but in principle, yes.

> and can it be searched for via program search functions?

- That depends on the program you're using.

In Acrobat you can use JS to identify whether or not there are annotations (the technical term for comments) in a file, like this:

this.syncAnnotScan();
var annots = this.getAnnots();
if (annots==null || annots.length==0) app.alert("There are no annotations in this file.",3);
else app.alert("There are " + annots.length + " annotations in this file.",3);

[CtDave]

Keep in mind that a PDF processor that complies with the PDF ISO Standard (ISO 32000-1) can facilitate much (try67's "in principle").

Unfortunately most times most PDF processors fall short of the requisite compliance. (You get a skate board, not the high performance vehicle you need eh.)