How do I add a highlight to text in my PDF using Comments and Annotations?

Open your PDF in Acrobat. Go to the 'Comment' tools. Select the 'Highlight' tool. Click and drag your mouse over the text you want to mark. The text will be highlighted, making it easy to spot important sections.

What should I do if my team needs to review a document together and add their own comments?

Share the PDF document with your team members. Ask them to use the 'Comment' tools, such as sticky notes, highlights, or text boxes, to add their feedback. They can also use 'reaction emojis' if the review is shared, for quick responses. After everyone has commented, you can review all the feedback in one place to make changes to the document.

Flag Critical Sections in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

2 ways to ask · copy any one

AExecute — “help me do it”Mark up the imaging or consult report PDF with callout comments highlighting sections that…+

Mark up the imaging or consult report PDF with callout comments highlighting sections that likely need physician input, such as worsening findings or discordant notes, so decision-makers see what to address first.

when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed.

BImprove — “do it better”Help physicians act fast by marking the report: add callouts to the exact paragraph with…+

Help physicians act fast by marking the report: add callouts to the exact paragraph with concern, include one-line why it matters to bedside care (eg, expanding effusion needs repeat echo), suggest a specific question to ask the radiologist or consultant, and flag a time urgency if it affects immediate management.

when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed.

How to do it

the tool · the steps · what to avoid

1
Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat.
2
Click the Comment button in the toolbar to display the commenting tools.
3
Select the annotation tool you want to use, such as Note, Highlight, Text Box, or Draw.
4
Click on the PDF page where you want to add your comment or annotation.
5
Type your comment or draw your annotation as needed.
6
Click away from the annotation or press Escape to save your comment or annotation.

In the appWith the API

You can use multiple annotation types in one session, such as highlighting text and adding sticky notes for detailed feedback.

This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.

Glossary

words on this page

CommentA note or message added to a file to give feedback or ask questions.ExampleYou add a note to a report asking the author to clarify a specific paragraph.

AnnotationAn annotation is a note or mark added to a document, like a highlight or a stamp, without changing the original text.ExampleHe added an annotation to the PDF, circling a key sentence and adding a question mark.

SanitizeTo remove sensitive or private information from a document before sharing it.ExampleRemember to sanitize the document by redacting personal details before sharing it publicly.

Who does this

3 roles

EditorTeacherProject Manager

FAQ

about this task

Open your PDF in Acrobat.
Go to the 'Comment' tools.
Select the 'Highlight' tool.
Click and drag your mouse over the text you want to mark.
The text will be highlighted, making it easy to spot important sections.

Both sticky notes and text boxes are used for adding comments, but they appear differently. A sticky note is a small icon that, when clicked, opens a pop-up window for your text. It's good for quick notes without changing the document's layout. A text box, however, places your text directly onto the page as a visible box, which is useful when you need more space for your comment and want it to be immediately readable on the page itself. Choose based on how much text you have and how visible you want the comment to be.

It is very important to sanitize comments and annotations because they are saved as a separate layer in your PDF. If you share a 'final' document without sanitizing it, all your review notes, thoughts, and private comments will still be present and visible to anyone who opens the file. This could lead to sensitive information being leaked or confusion about what is truly 'final'. Sanitizing removes all these hidden comments and markup, ensuring your document is clean and only shows the intended content before you release it.

No, adding drawing markup to a PDF will not change the original document content. Drawing markup, like other comments and annotations, is added as a separate layer on top of the PDF. This means the original text and images remain untouched. You can always remove or hide these markups later without affecting the document's core content. They are designed to be temporary review tools.

Share the PDF document with your team members.
Ask them to use the 'Comment' tools, such as sticky notes, highlights, or text boxes, to add their feedback.
They can also use 'reaction emojis' if the review is shared, for quick responses.
After everyone has commented, you can review all the feedback in one place to make changes to the document.

Flag Critical Sections

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help