7. Reviewing PDF Documents

Previous chapters have discussed Acrobat’s tools for placing and reading comments on a PDF page. The techniques that those chapters covered are excellent for soliciting comments from two or three other people.

However, what if you’re conducting a company-wide review of a document? You may be sending the PDF file to a dozen people to get comments and critiques. How do you keep track of the people to whom you have sent the document for review? And once you start receiving the annotated files back from the reviewers, how will you handle all the comments? Read them side by side? Import them into a single PDF file so you can look at them all at once?

Acrobat makes it relatively easy to conduct a broadly distributed review of a document. Acrobat will manage the process for you, sending copies of the document to reviewers and then collecting all their comments into a single copy of the file.

Acrobat can deliver copies to reviewers in two ways: emailing the document to all the reviewers (an email-based review) or arranging a server-based distribution across corporate network (a shared review).

You’ll see how to do both of these.

Starting an Email-Based Review

In an email-based review, Acrobat emails copies of a document to several reviewers. When reviewers open the received document, they comment on the document using the standard Acrobat annotation tools and then return the document by email. When the author opens the returned, annotated copy, Acrobat merges the comments into the author’s original PDF file. Eventually, the original file contains the comments returned by all the reviewers.

To start an email-based review

1. In the Tasks toolbar, choose Send for Review > Send by Email for Review (Figure 7.1).

   Figure 7.1. You initiate a review by choosing Send by Email for Review on the Tasks toolbar.

   

   Acrobat displays the first step in the Send by Email for Review Wizard (Figure 7.2), which gives an overview of the process.

   Figure 7.2. The first step in the Send by Email for Review Wizard specifies the file that is to be reviewed.

   

2. Click the Choose button, and choose the PDF file to be reviewed.

   As a convenience, you may choose an open PDF document in the pop-up menu.

3. Click Next.

   Acrobat displays the second step in the Send by Email for Review Wizard, which allows you to invite reviewers (Figure 7.3).

   Figure 7.3. The second step in the Wizard is to supply the email addresses of all the reviewers.

   

4. Type the email addresses of the reviewers into the text box.

   You can separate reviewers’ email addresses with spaces, semicolons, or new lines.

   You may instead click the Address Book button and select people in your system’s address book.

5. Click Next.

   Acrobat displays the final step in the Send by Email for Review Wizard (Figure 7.4), which lets you read and modify, if you wish, the email the reviewers will see.

   Figure 7.4. You finish by editing the subject and message text of the notification emails.

   

6. Type the text that you want for your email’s subject in the Invitation Message Subject field.
7. Modify or replace the email’s message text as you wish.

   In most cases, you should leave the message text as is, because it provides detailed directions to the reviewers on what to do.

8. Click the Send Invitation button.

   Acrobat launches your email client and displays the outbound mail message with the PDF file attached (Figure 7.5).

   Figure 7.5. When you’re invited to review a document, the PDF file is attached to the email.

   

9. Click your email client’s Send button or otherwise send the email message on its way.

Reviewing a Document

When you receive a document for review, you get an email—in your usual email software—with the PDF file attached. When you open that PDF file, Acrobat recognizes that it’s part of a review and automatically does three things that make it easy to review the document:

• Makes the Comment & Markup toolbar visible

• Adds a Send Comments button to the toolbar (Figure 7.7)

Figure 7.7. A reviewer can return the commented PDF file by clicking the Send Comments button in the Comment & Markup toolbar.

• Adds to the top of the document pane helpful instructions on how what to do with the document (Figure 7.8)

Figure 7.8. Acrobat presents the reviewer with instructions on how to review the emailed document.

To review a PDF document

1. Open the PDF file attached to the notification email.

   If this email was sent to you by another reviewer, the Merge Comments dialog box asks if you want to see the other person’s comments (Figure 7.9).

   Figure 7.9. When a reviewer opens the email attachment, Acrobat offers to display any comments placed in the file by other reviewers.

   

2. If you are presented with the Merge Comments dialog box, click Yes or No, according to whether you want to see other people’s comments.

   Acrobat displays the document in a window with the review instructions, as in Figure 7.8.

3. Make your comments on the document as described in Chapter 5.
4. When you’re finished annotating the document, click the Send Comments button.

   The Send Comments dialog box opens (Figure 7.10).

   Figure 7.10. When the reviewer clicks Send Comments, Acrobat provides a chance to alter the return email’s subject and message texts.

   

5. Click the Send button.

   Acrobat launches your email client and displays the outbound mail message with the PDF file attached.

6. Click your email client’s Send button or otherwise send the email message on its way.

Receiving Email-Reviewed Documents

When you receive a reviewed copy of your document, the annotated version of the PDF file is attached to the notification email. Open this attached document, and Acrobat merges the comments it contains into your original copy.

To receive a reviewed document

1. In your email software, open the attached PDF file.

   Acrobat will present you with the Merge Comments dialog box (Figure 7.11), which asks if you want to merge the comments into your copy of the document.

   Figure 7.11. When the author opens a reviewed copy of the document, Acrobat offers to merge the comments into the original PDF file.

   

2. Click the Yes button.

   Acrobat opens the original PDF document and imports the comments from the attached PDF file into your original (Figure 7.12).

   Figure 7.12. Acrobat merges the reviewer’s comments into the original document file.

   

3. Read the comments as described in Chapter 6.

Starting a Shared Review

Shared reviews are technically more efficient than email-based reviews, because all the comments are stored in a single location rather than being shuttled around attached to different copies of the document. It may also be more appropriate if the file being reviewed is very large, because many email servers won’t send or accept attachments that exceed some maximum size. (Five MB is a typical limit.)

The disadvantage of shared reviews is that all reviewers must have access to the same server, because that is where their comments will be stored. However, this is often the case in an office environment.

Before you can start a shared review, you must allocate a comments repository: a server location in which review comments are stored. This may be a folder on a server volume, a WebDAV folder, or a SharePoint workspace; the last two must be set up by your organization’s system support staff.

For now, we’ll set up a folder on a server volume as the repository for review documents, because you can do so without IT support.

To set up a comments repository

1. Open Acrobat’s Preferences by choosing (on the Macintosh) Acrobat > Preferences or (in Windows) Edit > Preferences.

   The Preferences dialog box opens.

2. Click the Reviewing category.

   Acrobat displays the controls for the Reviewing options (Figure 7.13).

   Figure 7.13. The Preferences dialog box allows you to establish a location for the comments repository.

   

3. In the Server Type pop-up menu, choose Network Folder.
4. Click the Choose button to choose a repository folder.

   The standard Open dialog box opens.

5. Choose a folder on your server volume; this will become your repository folder.
6. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.

To start a shared review

1. In the Comment & Markup toolbar, choose Send for Review > Send for Shared Review.

   Acrobat displays the first pane of the Send PDF for Shared Review Wizard, which records server information (Figure 7.14).

   Figure 7.14. In starting a shared review, you must first specify the repository for the comments and the PDF file to be reviewed.

   

2. From the Shared Location to Store Comments pop-up menu, choose the comments repository you set up earlier in the Preferences.
3. Select a PDF file to be reviewed. You may choose among open PDF files in the pop-up menu or click the Browse button to select a file on your disk.
4. Acrobat Pro Only: If you want to allow reviewers to use Adobe Reader to comment on the document, click the Enable Reviewers with Adobe Reader check box.

   Note that you’re restricted in your ability to edit the PDF file as long as Adobe Reader commenting is enabled.

5. Click the Next button.

   Acrobat displays the second pane of the Send for Shared Review Wizard, which determines how to send the document (Figure 7.15). The default values in this pane may be accepted as reasonable values.

   Figure 7.15. You must decide how the reviewed document will be sent to the reviewers. The defaults for these controls can be accepted.

   

6. Click Next.

   Acrobat displays the third pane of the Send for Shared Review Wizard, which lets you invite reviewers (Figure 7.16).

   Figure 7.16. You must provide the email addresses of the reviewers.

   

7. Type the email addresses of the reviewers into the text box.

   You can separate reviewers’ email addresses with spaces, semicolons, or new lines.

   Note that you can distinguish between reviewers who must review the document and those who are optional.

   As a convenience, you may instead click the Address Book button and select people in your system’s address book.

8. If you wish to set a deadline for the review, click the Set Deadline check box and enter a date into the month, day, and year fields.
9. Click Next.

   Acrobat displays the final pane of the Send for Shared Review Wizard, where you can check out the invitation (Figure 7.17).

   Figure 7.17. You can edit the text of the email subject and message.

   

10. Edit the email subject and message content as you wish.

    Note that in most cases, the default message text is most useful, because it gives instructions for how to review the document.

11. Click Finish.

    Acrobat posts the PDF file to the server folder and notifies the reviewers by email.

Reviewing a Shared Document

When you receive an emailed request for a shared review, the PDF document is attached to the email message. When you open this attachment, Acrobat will display the document together with all the currently existing comments downloaded from the comments repository. There is also a set of instructions at the top of the document pane (Figure 7.18) telling you how to proceed with the review.

Figure 7.18. When a reviewer opens a document for review, Acrobat adds several controls to the standard document window: Instructions on how to review the document, Check for New Comments link, Publish Comments link, Review & Comment toolbar menu.

Note that you must be connected to the server that holds the comments repository to review the document.

To review a server-based document

1. In your email software, open the attached PDF file.

   Acrobat opens the document, together with any existing comments.

2. Add your comments to the document, using the comment tools as usual.
3. Click the Publish Comments link at the top of the document window (Figure 7.18).

   Acrobat stores your comments on the server.

Receiving Server-Based Reviews

The best way to collect comments from a shared review is to use the Review Tracker (Figure 7.19). This tool lists all the reviews that you’ve initiated and lets you conveniently see the current state of all their comments.

Figure 7.19. Clicking a review server in the Review Tracker lists all the outstanding reviews on that server.

To read comments from a server-based review

1. In the Comment & Markup toolbar, choose Send for Review > Tracker.

   Acrobat will present you with the Review Tracker dialog box (Figure 7.19).

2. Click the review server that contains the review you want to examine.

   The right side of the dialog box lists all the reviews on that server, as in Figure 7.19. (The figure shows only one entry: Flukey_Review.pdf.)

3. Click the review you want to examine.

   The “Welcome back to Shared Review” dialog box opens (Figure 7.20), which summarizes activity since the last time you looked at that review.

   Figure 7.20. When the author checks on a shared review, Acrobat displays recent activity for that review.

   

4. Click OK.

   Acrobat opens the PDF file and loads the reviewers’ comments from the server (Figure 7.21).

   Figure 7.21. When the author opens a reviewed document, Acrobat displays all the comments in the comments repository.

   

5. View the comments in the document as discussed in Chapter 6.