How do I add a sticky note comment to a PDF document?

Open your PDF in Acrobat. Go to the 'Comment' tools. Select the 'sticky note' icon. Click on the page where you want the note. Type your message in the note box and close it.

How do drawing markup tools compare to text-based comments in Acrobat?

Feature Type Purpose Examples. Drawing Markup Tools To visually highlight or draw attention to specific areas, shapes, or images. Circles, arrows, lines, freehand drawings, rectangles, cloud tool. Text-Based Comments To add written feedback, questions, or detailed explanations linked to text or areas. Sticky notes, text boxes, callouts, highlight, underline, strikethrough.

Undisciplined Redline Protocol in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

1 way to ask · copy any one

DBecome — “help me grow”I've watched weaker reps give away terms in late redlines. Diagnose the recurring mistakes in…+

I've watched weaker reps give away terms in late redlines. Diagnose the recurring mistakes in our redline handling, propose a standard redline protocol that balances legal rigor with sales speed, and sketch the governance steps to train the team so we preserve leverage at close.

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.

MarkupHighlighting, underlining, or drawing on a PDF to show what is important.ExampleYou use the markup tool to highlight key sentences in the report.

Who does this

3 roles

EditorTeacherProject Manager

FAQ

about this task

Open your PDF in Acrobat.
Go to the 'Comment' tools.
Select the 'sticky note' icon.
Click on the page where you want the note.
Type your message in the note box and close it.

In Acrobat, a comment is usually text-based feedback, like a sticky note or a text box. An annotation is more about marking up the document visually, such as highlighting text, underlining, or drawing shapes. Both are used to give feedback and are part of the 'Comments and Annotations' feature set.

Yes, if you share a PDF that has comments and markups, the other person will see them. Comments are a separate layer of data within the PDF. To make sure your personal notes do not leak, you must 'flatten' or 'sanitize' the document before sharing. Use the 'Protect > Sanitize' option in Acrobat to remove all review notes and comments.

It is important to sanitize a PDF to protect your privacy and prevent unwanted information from being shared. Comments, highlights, and other markups are often internal review notes. If you send a 'final' version without sanitizing, these notes could be seen by others. Sanitizing removes this extra data, making the document clean and truly final.

Feature Type	Purpose	Examples
Drawing Markup Tools	To visually highlight or draw attention to specific areas, shapes, or images.	Circles, arrows, lines, freehand drawings, rectangles, cloud tool.
Text-Based Comments	To add written feedback, questions, or detailed explanations linked to text or areas.	Sticky notes, text boxes, callouts, highlight, underline, strikethrough.

Undisciplined Redline Protocol

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help