How-To: Author Anita Dennis explains how to use Acrobat 7 to enable commenting by Adobe Reader 7 users in a PDF workflow.Q: I've heard that people who have only the free Adobe Reader can see and create comments in PDF documents. How do I include those people in document reviews?
A: Yes, Acrobat 7 Professional lets you enable commenting tools and features in the free Adobe Reader 7, so you can include colleagues and clients in document reviews even if they don't have the full Acrobat software.
If you're initiating the review, you must use Acrobat 7 Professional—not Standard or an earlier version of Acrobat—and if you're participating in the review, you must use Reader 7, not an earlier version of Reader. You can download Adobe Reader 7 here.
Before you initiate the review, launch Acrobat and choose Acrobat > Preferences on Mac OS or Edit > Preferences in Windows. Click Identity in the list on the left side of the dialog box, and enter the requested information on the right side—your name, company and e-mail address. Acrobat needs this information for comments, reviews and digital signatures.
Click here to read author Elizabeth Millard's take on Acrobat 7.
A wizard walks you through the process of initiating document reviews, including a step to allow people with Reader 7 to participate. With a PDF document open in Acrobat 7 Professional, click the Send for Review button, and choose Send by E-Mail for Review from the pop-up menu that appears.
In the Send by E-Mail for Review dialog box, specify the PDF document that you want to send for review—by default, your open document will be displayed in the pop-up menu. To choose another document, click the Choose button, navigate to and select the other document, and click Open. Then click Next to proceed to the second step of the wizard—inviting reviewers.
In the blank field at the top of the dialog box, type in the e-mail addresses of the people you want to include in your review, separating addresses with a comma or by pressing Return or Enter. Or click the Address Book button to select e-mail addresses from your address book. Then click the Customize Review Options button.
In the Review Options dialog box, indicate where you want reviewers to send back their comments—probably to your own e-mail address.
Then check the magic box: "Also allow users of Free Adobe Reader 7.0 to participate in this review." This enables commenting capabilities in Reader 7 for this PDF document. Click OK.
Click Next to proceed to the last step of the wizard, where you can preview or edit the message that will appear in reviewers' inboxes when they receive your e-mail invitation. When you're satisfied, click Send Invitation.
Acrobat uses your e-mail application in the background to send the PDF. (On the Mac, Acrobat uses Apple's Mail application by default; on Windows it uses Outlook Express.)
When reviewers receive this PDF document in their e-mail, they can open it in Acrobat or Reader. If they open it in Reader 7, they will be able to use all of the same robust commenting tools that are in Acrobat 7 Professional to mark up the PDF.
A How To pane appears automatically in Reader 7 to help reviewers through the process. A yellow box under the toolbar provides additional instructions and guidance. Reviewers can strike through text, add notes, highlight text, add stamps and digital signatures, and much more.
When they're done marking up the PDF, reviewers can click the Send Comments button on the Commenting toolbar to e-mail their feedback to you. They also can save a copy to their own hard drives (by choosing File > Save As).
For those doing more advanced design reviews, Adobe Reader 7 also features support for overprint preview, which helps minimize unwanted, last-minute surprises in the four-color printing process. To toggle on overprint preview, choose Adobe Reader > Preferences on the Mac or File > Preferences in Windows, click Page Display on the left, and check the Overprint Preview box on the right. Then click OK to close Preferences.
