Compare the contractor's latest shop drawing PDF to my approved layout PDF, generate a deviation report showing change…
Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat.
Click the Comment button in the toolbar to display the commenting tools.
Select the annotation tool you want to use, such as Note, Highlight, Text Box, or Draw.
Click on the PDF page where you want to add your comment or annotation.
Type your comment or draw your annotation as needed.
Click away from the annotation or press Escape to save your comment or annotation.
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.
Highlighting directly marks text, making it stand out visually. It's good for showing important parts or changes quickly. A sticky note, however, is a small pop-up box you can place anywhere in the document. It lets you write longer comments or explanations that don't fit directly on the text. Both are useful for review, but highlighting is for quick visual emphasis, while sticky notes are for detailed feedback.
Your highlights are part of a 'comment layer' in the PDF, not permanently merged into the document content. If the recipient's PDF viewer doesn't support viewing comment layers, or if the file was 'flattened' by a different process, the highlights might not appear. Always make sure to 'Save As' a new PDF or use 'Protect > Sanitize' if you want to ensure comments are either embedded or removed properly before sharing.
The 'Sanitize' feature in Adobe Acrobat is important for privacy and professionalism. When you add comments and markups, they are stored as recoverable data in a separate layer. If you share a 'final' version of a document, you might not want these review notes, hidden data, or metadata to be visible. 'Sanitize' removes all such hidden information and comments, ensuring that only the clean document content is shared, preventing accidental data leaks.