InDesign Questions about share for review comments

Report · Sep 07, 2022

I have shared a document for Review with a client. They have made comments and I can see their comments within InDesign in the Review window. I have some questions:

The document uses 'facing pages', but the document reviewd by the client is 'spreads' and the page numbers in the Review window refer not to the page number, but the spread number. I'm finding this confusing. Is there a way to get the comments to show what PAGE the comment is on, rather than what SPREAD it is on?

I've made some / all of the ammendments. But at the bottom of the Review window are some comments under a heading titled 'unmapped comments'. These comments look like comments I have already dealt with. I suspect after dealing with a comment I have to click 'Resolve'? Shouldn't that say 'Resolved'?

Having resolved the comments, is there a way to share the document for review, again, so that the client can check I've made the amendments? i.e. will their comments still show up, so that they can quickly see on spread 125 that they asked me to do something and I've done it. It seems to me that once I click 'resolve' the comment disappears and so the client has no record of where the comments were?

Report · Sep 07, 2022

You will get a bit more continuity by using PDF Comments instead of Share for Review. Each time you upload a Share for Review, it is as if you are starting fresh. Harrumph!

Maybe you could do text editing and substantial changes with the PDF Comment panel. Maybe you could do a final round of light comments with Share for Review.

If you Share for Review and others make comments, but in the meantime you also change the page count, you will get "unmapped comments".

Mike Witherell

Report · Sep 08, 2022

Hello! Since Adobe's reply really didn't answer any of your questions, here's what I've learned about these items - hope it helps.

- You'll probably just have to get used to the spread numbers - I've not found a way to change it. Having visible page numbers as part of your document can help you know what page you're on.

- Unmapped comments happen when you delete the marker as you make the edit. For example, when you delete an entire senetence marked with a strikethrough, the strikethrough disappears and the comment becomes unmapped. You can work around this by typing a few spaces within the strikethrough (or highlight); remove the text, but leave the spaces to keep the comment mapped. If that's not an option, you can describe the location in your reply to the original comment.

- There's no way to have the program e-mail the reviewers again, so my team e-mails the updated link to them directly to let them know edits are done and they need to review. Resolved comments don't disappear, they go to the background. You can see all resolved comments and markers by clicking the funnel in the corner of the comments panel and filter by Resolved.

Good luck! 🙂

Report · Sep 12, 2022

- You'll probably just have to get used to the spread numbers - I've not found a way to change it. Having visible page numbers as part of your document can help you know what page you're on.

Yes I've not found a way to change it either.

- Unmapped comments happen when you delete the marker as you make the edit. For example, when you delete an entire senetence marked with a strikethrough, the strikethrough disappears and the comment becomes unmapped. You can work around this by typing a few spaces within the strikethrough (or highlight); remove the text, but leave the spaces to keep the comment mapped. If that's not an option, you can describe the location in your reply to the original comment.

The disappearing marker, making a comment 'unmapped', makes Share for Review unusable. The marker (or a pin) needs to stay, so that the client can see where they asked for changes, to check the changes have been made. As it is my client is having to print the document out (as spreads – which is less than ideal – see my comment above) and physically mark-up the changes, so that they have a record of where the changes were!

Surely 'Resolve' should say 'Resolved'? The two have very different meanings.

Resolved comments don't disappear, they go to the background. You can see all resolved comments and markers by clicking the funnel in the corner of the comments panel and filter by Resolved.

Thank you

I like to number the versions of my documents, version01, version02, version03 etc. Having resolved a clients comments, when I resave the document as version02, all the markers and comments are lost. I think this again makes Share for Review unworkable.

Report · Dec 13, 2023

Just started using this as it seemed liek a great option and now realize it sucks. I agree that "the disappearing marker, making a comment 'unmapped', makes Share for Review unusable." This is so frustration and feeling very mad I used this feature. I can't believe that haven't fixed this in a year.

Report · Dec 14, 2023

I had to use this feature yesterday and still find it infuriating. The client had put changes to the text in the Comments, but I was unable to copy the text in the Comments! The only way I could do it was to open the web version and copy it from that.

Report · Dec 14, 2023

You can copy from Comments in InDesign by using the key commands. In the Comments window, highlight the text you want to copy, then use 'Ctrl + C' to copy, then you can paste into your text. If you want to paste something into the Comments window use 'Ctrl + V' to paste. Hope that helps!

Report · Dec 14, 2023

Yeah, tried that, but bizarrely it wouldn't let me copy and paste from the Comments window. I even restarted InDesign and still no joy

Report · Dec 14, 2023

I'm sorry to hear that - I know how frustrating it is when this thing doesn't work.

Have you upgraded to version 19.0.1?