Round Trip Comments from Pdf to Word or AutoCad
One of the best features in Acrobat is the ability to round trip comments. Starting in Acrobat 7 Pro we gave you the ability to enable users with the Free Adobe Reader software to fully participate in document review with complete commenting and markup tools. The great thing about this is it give you about 90% of desktops that you are able to communicate with and solicit comments. The two document types in the AEC industry that use this today to solicit feedback and round trip comments, is on Word documents and AutoCad drawings. For this entry I am going to take you how to complete this process on a Word document.
I am going to start with the pdf document. To get to this point you can take any word document and convert it to pdf. The first step is to enable the file so that it turns on the Review and Commenting tools for those users with the Free Adobe Reader. If you do not do this step, then others users will need at least Acrobat Standard to participate. This step can be accomplished several ways. The two review and comment options of “Attach for Email Review” or “Send for Shared Review” will Reader Enable the file . If it is more of an informal process then you can simply enable the file from the top Comments Menu as shown here:
Note: If you would have used “Attach for Email” or “Send for Shared Review” the Adobe Reader would have automatically been enabled for you.
Next you need to distribute for review and comment. If you are not using the methods described above then you simply email or store the file on a central location where other users are able to access the file.
Once a user opens the file then they can simply start Review and Commenting on the document. Below is an example of a document that has been marked up.
Once all desired comments have been placed on the pdf you can now simply import those comments back into the original native authoring document which is Word in this case. To do so you must open up the original document and choose Acrobat Comments from the top tool menu and then select Import Comments from Acrobat as show here.
You will then be prompted with the following screen that confirms you action and allows you to start the import process.
You will then be prompted by a box that allows you to specify the comment types that you want to import.
When you continue from this screen it will then prompt you to integrate the text edits into the document. So text that has been inserted, deleted or changed can then be placed directly into the document.
Once you have completed all the text edits you will come to the last screen which gives you the import summary.
Once you integrate the text edits you are then presented will all the comments in the native Word Document in which you can then use to continue authoring the document.
This is a great feature that you can use to review Word Documents or even use for AutoCad drawings. What I like the most about this feature is that the review and commenting tools are much easier to use in Acrobat. I also like the fact that whomever I send the document to for review, chances are they will have Acrobat or the Free Adobe Reader in which to complete the review. For AutoCad you would follow the same process as outlined above.
Have fun,
Jonathan