importing PDF comments: see/keep local formatting

[Mathieu Christe CJBG]

Hi everyone,

I’m using InDesign CC 2019 (14.0.3) under macOS Mojave (10.14.6 (18G8012)).

Working as a typographer, I’m often handed PDF with comments. Overall this works well but I’m missing two things. First, the PDF Comments panel menu doesn’t display local formatting (italic, bold, bold italic) whereas these are visible in Acrobat. Second and most important, when accepting a comment, any local formatting doesn’t translate into InDesign. As if the whole content is treated as plain text.

I’ve checked the online User Guide but the page dedicated to PDF comments doesn’t mention it. I’ve found a couple of people (1, 2) reporting this lack but apart from a workaround, it seems these features aren’t implemented yet.

Am I missing something? If not, what’s the plan Adobe or was it added/fixed in more recent versions?

Thanks & best,

Mathieu

[Joely · Accepted solution]

Salut Mathieu,

no, i don't think you're missing something – it's just how this feature is right now.

i invite you to post your feature request over here: https://indesign.uservoice.com/

regards,

Joely

[Mathieu Christe CJBG]

Bonjour Joely,

Thank you for confirming that this feature doesn’t exist yet. I’ve just posted a request using the link.

[Laubender]

Mathieu said:

"…First, the PDF Comments panel menu doesn’t display local formatting (italic, bold, bold italic) whereas these are visible in Acrobat. Second and most important, when accepting a comment, any local formatting doesn’t translate into InDesign. As if the whole content is treated as plain text."

We recently had someone in this forum who also missed a method to transfer bold, italic, bold-italic or underline from the PDF comments in Acrobat to the layout in InDesign. There is no actual solution implemented as you already know, but maybe the script RichPaste.jsx by Marc Autret could work for you: Transfer bold, italic, bold-italic or underline through copy/paste from Acrobat to InDesign without transferring the used Segoe UI font.

See details in my answer in this thread:

Including formating from PDF comments
rasmussvanejensen, Mar 26, 2021
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/including-formating-from-pdf-comments/m-p/11928368#M419926

My workaround outlined in the same thread:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/including-formating-from-pdf-comments/m-p/11968211#M422066

I tested Marc's script with my German InDesign 2021 on Windows 10 without any issues.

It should also work on Mac OS. Let me know what you think…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Mathieu Christe CJBG]

Thank you Uwe for the workaround, the thread you mention had me discover Tobias Wantzen’s Acrobat script. It’s interesting to see how different users approach this problem. After having given both options a try, I’ve decided to trust my eye when accepting PDF comments. This way, I check each comment carefully, allowing me to spot misformatted corrections from my clients using the wrong annotation tool for example.