How to disable Comments on my Indesign file uploaded to Adobe Cloud

[meh67]

My client wants to use the Adobe Cloud commenting features to review and make edits for a report im working on. After creating the Share for Review Link with my "Company X"contact and an external group that reviews as well, I would like to now disable the external group's ability to comment. Everyone was told a "Pens down" date for no additional comments for this round so we can make edits and prepare the next draft, but there are people that continue to make comments on it - which is proving complicated to keep trac of now.

The only way I see is to UNSHARE the document - but that unshares it with my "CompanyX" contact who needs to see all those comments and make sure I have implimented them.

Im sure Im missing something simple because if I cant keep people from commenting this is going to turn into a nightmare.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @meh67,

Could you try turning off the option for Comments from Link Settings under More Options in the Share for Review Panel to see if it helps?


Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[meh67]

I saw on a different online support group that by doing that it will remove the existing comments which my direct contact  still needs and those will be lost (there are hundreds that have been applied by numerous people over the course of a week). I dont dare try that now - but as soon as my direct Contact is done with her review and the comments are no longer necessary, I will try that.

Are you saying that all people who have access to the link will still be able to view it and all comments applied, but NOT be able to comment any longer? If that is the case - that is exactly what I need. I am just hesitant to try it now.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @meh67,

I tested this on my end and found that if you disable commenting from the Link Settings, the old comments from that link actually disappear, so your concern was totally valid.

The best workaround I found is to first copy and save the original link (with all the comments) somewhere safe for reference. Then, create a new Share for Review link for the same document and disable commenting on this new link. This way, no one will be able to add new comments on the new link(you can share the new link and they can just see and not comment), while you can still access and review all previous comments using the original link.

Hope this helps you manage the feedback process a bit more smoothly. 

Abhishek

[meh67]

Thank you for the response.

If I understand you correctly, this wont really solve the issue.

The problem is that I cant keep people that already have the link from commenting. If I save the currrent link and then create a new one (the new one by default will have no comments on it at all). That just means confusion as to why we are sending them a new link that we dont want them to comment on now, and they still have the old one that they can.

This is obviously a case of us needing to be more firm and clear as to their expectations on not commenting anymore on this version - we are just finding it hard to trust several groups of people in different time zones to get the memo when they are the client and they are paying us. It would be great to have a "no more commenting" feature to help with this issue.

Thanks for your assistance though!

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @meh67,

You're right, turning off comments removes all existing ones, and anyone with the original link can still comment. Right now, there’s no way to lock commenting while keeping the comments visible.

I'd recommend submitting this as a feature request on UserVoice. Once you’ve done that, feel free to share the link here so others can upvote it too.

Let me know if you need anything else!

Abhishek 

[meh67 · Accepted solution]

That's a great idea Abhishek, Here is the feature request link:
https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/49815821-sh...