But the really productive part is after you have received comments from others on a PDF version of the document, possibly via a Shared Review. That is the time you will want to apply – or integrate – the changes to the source Word document: you got it, Acrobat can help you out here too by exporting PDF comments from Acrobat back to Word.

[As I stated in Part 1, this method applies only to supported versions of Microsoft Word on Windows. Apologies to my Mac brothers and sisters.]

Before you get started, I suggest opening the PDF file with comments, going through the feedback and suggested changes from reviewers. This is so you ca determine what is exported to Word and then integrated for you [this is optional, but will save you some time later if you have a lot of suggested changes, some of which you know won't be integrated]. You can do one or both of the following:

1. Marking the valid ones with a checkmark by right-clicking the comments and choosing “Mark with Checkmark” or just clicking the checkbox to the left of the comments in the Comment List of the Comments Navigation Panel. Note that this checkmark won’t appear in the document when viewed by others. Otherwise…
2. Right-click on a comment and choose “Set Status > Review” and either “Accepted” or “Rejected”. You can also do this from the Comments List. Others will see this status for the comment as part of the review.

With that done, let’s get to work…

Export PDF Comments From Acrobat to Word

To get started, choose Comments > Export Comments to Word… in Acrobat, or if you have the Comments list open, choose Export Comments to Word… from the Comments List Options button.

What this will do is launch Microsoft Word, if it isn’t open already, and now that you are there, open the “Import Comments from Adobe Acrobat” wizard [I know, I know, that's not the exact title of this article, but it is the same thing really]. If you are already in Word, or have the original DOC/DOCX document open, you can also go to the Acrobat ribbon (or menu) and choose “Import Comments from Acrobat…” under “Acrobat Comments”.

If you haven’t been through this before, a screen of instructions will appear first: click OK to continue. You will then see one of three possible scenarios, depending on how you launched the wizard:

• If you are coming from Acrobat in this step, the PDF file you had open before with all the comments will be shown under “Take comments from this PDF file:”.
• If you launched the wizard from within Word and the source DOC/DOCX file was open, it will be listed under “Place comments in this Word file:”. By default, the wizard will look for a PDF file in the same folder and with the same file name, and if it finds it, lists that too. It’s assuming that PDF file is the one that has comments.
• If you got to the wizard from Word with no file open, both fields will be blank.

Whatever gets listed there for files, you can change it by clicking on the “Browse…” button.

You can then choose what you would like to import to Word:

• All Comments. This includes drawing markups such as polygons and callouts. If a comment or markup has a pop-up with text in it, then this will be made the text for the Word comment. The PDF comment or markup type, and the date that the comment was made, are also added to the Word comment text. For example, “Comment [08/21/09#3]:Highlight: The text from the pop-up.”
• All Comments with Checkmarks.This will only include comments and markup that you checked off using Acrobat’s Comments List, for example.
• Text Edits only: Insertions, Deletions and Replaces. This will just integrate the suggested changes to the Word document, and not just add the Text Edits as Word comments.
• Custom Filters, for the comments you would like to include and apply. With this option you can be choosy about what is imported and applied to the Word document, including which authors comments you would like incorporated. For example, you can specify that only comments and markup that you have checked and accepted be imported by the wizard. Everything else will be ignored.

Finally for this part, as you can see from the previous image, you can also instruct the wizard to turn on Word’s Track Changes feature so you can see what gets changed once the wizard has completed its task.

Once you are back at the start of the wizard, the real fun begins when you click the “Continue” button.

First, the wizard will go ahead and import all the PDF comments into the Word document (unless you filtered them using the options I mentioned before). You should see them over on the right hand side of the pages, as expected with Word comments, pointing to the location where they were originally added to the PDF file. You will get the best results here if the Word document was converted to a PDF file using Acrobat PDFMaker and was tagged, but it still works otherwise. The wizard will then report back on how many comments were imported to Word, breaking it up by Text Edits and Other Comments:

If you thought that was cool, just wait for the next part…Integrate Text Edits is the next optional step (click Cancel to skip it), and it does just what it says on the tin. The wizard will go through the imported insertion, deletion or replacement Text Edits comments, and apply those changes for you. Acrobat is even doing your work for you now!

You can apply or discard them one-by-one by clicking on the appropriate button. You can then either click “Next”, or check the “Automatically go to next” option, and the wizard will jump to the next Text Edit comment and move the dialog and document so you can see the highlighted area to be changed. If you know you want to apply them all because you have already checked and/or accepted them in Acrobat beforehand, go ahead and click “Apply All Remaining”.

You don’t have to use what you see in the “New Text” field. As you can see in this example, a typo was missed in the original Text Edit comment: I don’t believe the author of this document really wants to extol the virtues of causing unwanted and annoying color changes to garments, but would rather mention the commitment to environmentally responsible practices [granted, I am the one who made the mistake]. Just go ahead and type in to that field what the text should be, and that is what the wizard will use.

Once all the changes have been applied, the wizard wraps things up by giving you a final report on the text integrations it made, with a couple of tips for cleaning things up in your Word document via the Acrobat ribbon/menu, including merging tracked changes and deleting comment bubbles.

Now think back to what you just read or tried yourself, and how you would have gotten to that same result before. If you were lucky to have two monitors, you may have the PDF and DOC/DOCX files open side-by-side and visually scanned from comment to comment applying those changes as you saw fit. If you had only one monitor, it was either a) very large or b) you are beginning to wear out your Alt and Tab keys on your keyboard. You may also have printed out the PDF document with comments, or the Comments Summary from Acrobat, and visually scanned that for changes to make [not very (su)stainable]. Either way, it was a process that was certainly slower than using Acrobat’s Export(Import) Comments command, and probably had a greater risk of introducing errors or missing important changes.

Give this real time-saver a try and see how it works out for you. Remember, for best results use a PDF document that was created from the same Word document using Acrobat PDFMaker – no refrigeration after opening required.

“What does the Migrate Comments command do, and how should I use the Migration status flags?”

Migrate Comments

If you only send out one draft version of a document for review before distributing the final version you are either a) brave or b) very very good. But I am sure you, like me, actually send two or more versions to others before finalizing the document. If your manager’s manager’s manager is as busy as mine, that might mean comments come back to you on a document after you have already sent out a new version. This newer version incorporates suggested changes from those who did get their comments back to you on time. So do you just ignore your manager’s manager’s managers feedback? That is probably not a good career move. Instead, you can migrate those late-arriving comments from an older version of the document in to the newer version using the “Migrate Comments” command.

But how does Acrobat know where to put those comments when you have already changed the document? It does so by looking at the text and structure of the document to determine where the comment or markup should go in the new version. This works best if the PDF documents are tagged, ideally created using something like PDFMaker for Microsoft Office and other applications, or when exporting to a Tagged PDF from Adobe InDesign.

The Acrobat 9 Help file describes best what happens to each comment type:

• Text comments that reference particular words, such as highlights, cross-outs, and insertion carets, appear within the word grouping where they were originally placed.
• Drawing markups and sticky notes appear in the same structural location as they did in the original document.
• Circle, polygon, rectangle, and stamp comments always appear on the same page as the original document.

To use the command, first open the two versions of the document with the comments in them. Then go to the Comments menu and choose “Migrate Comments”

If Acrobat cannot find the words or structure in the newer document that a comment was associated with in the older one, it will just place it on the page as it appeared before, unless the page has been deleted in which case it gets placed on the last page (well it has to go somewhere!). Text edits are converted to sticky note comments.

Migration Status Flags

There are several properties that you can apply (or see but not apply) to annotations on PDF files: your login name, the time and date the annotation was applied, icon, color and so on.

One of those properties is a “Migration Status”. If you look at the Migrate Comments dialog box above, you will see that Acrobat gives you the option to “Review migrated comments in the Comments list”. This will set each of the migrated comments with a “Not confirmed” migration status flag, then show those only in the Comments Navigation Panel. You can then check each one out to see if they are still applicable, and if so, set their status to “Confirmed” from either the Comments Navigation Panel toolbar or by right-clicking the annotation.

These are really nothing more than flags: use them in the way that suits you best for your document review workflow. And they are there to make sure that your manager’s manager’s manager’s comments are all incorporated as quickly as possible, in case this time around she does look at the next version of the plan faster than usual.

The first one will show you how to initiate a shared review with Acrobat 9 that uses a SharePoint document library as the review location.

The second video shows a few things for SharePoint administrators to consider when setting up a workspace for the purposes of a shared review with Acrobat.

I would feel guilty if I didn’t mention Omtool Swiftwriter, a free plug-in that allows both Acrobat and Adobe Reader to open and save PDF files to SharePoint and other document management systems. You can find out more from their website.

Finally, if you are using SharePoint today, especially with Acrobat and Adobe Reader, the product management team would love to hear from you. Check this Shredding the Document article for more details. Otherwise, feel free to post a comment here about how you are using Acrobat with SharePoint, or what you would like to see.

This includes setting the following collaboration and commenting features for all users whom the customized installer is deployed to:

• Disabling all Acrobat.com features, for those in a locked-down environment where users cannot post any data to an external server
• Disable only specific Acrobat.com features, such as the ability to initiate of Shared Reviews; initiation of live collaboration and screen sharing; the ‘Go to Acrobat.com’ menu item; sharing documents via Acrobat.com; and Buzzword document creation
• Add preconfigured network folder, web server folder (WebDAV) or Microsoft SharePoint Workspace servers locations for Shared Reviews
• Add custom or browser-based online comment repositories for legacy workflows
• Changing the default file types that can be attached to PDF documents (for security purposes)

There are a whole host of other settings that can be preconfigured using this tool, including a direct MSI installation table editor and a Registry key tool, so check out Joel’s blog or go to the Adobe Customization Wizard 9 page here for more information, including a link to download it (it’s free, by the way). Documentation on deploying Acrobat and Reader can also be obtained from the Adobe Developer Connection.

You will need to create a new Server Location. But Acrobat 9 will not let you create one with the same name as one that already exists when you go through the “Send for Review” steps. Therefore, you will need to delete the old Location first. To do that, we need to take a trip down to Preferences. So open those up using Edit > Preferences…(Windows) or Acrobat > Preferences…(Mac), and select the “Tracker” preferences from the list on the right.

There you will see the “Custom Server Locations” listed in a drop-down which are the names you were asked to use when you first created a Location for a Shared Review. Select the one you want to remove, then press the “Remove Server Profile” button.

You can now return to the “Send for Review” wizard and recreate the profile for your Shared Review location.

Now if you would like to change the location of your home to a place in your favorite spot in the world, you are on your own….

All you need to do is go to the Acrobat Preferences (Acrobat > Preferences… (Mac) or Edit > Preferences… (Win) and choose the Tracker options on the left. From there, move the first slider all the way to the right. This sets Acrobat 9 to Never “Automatically Check for New Comments and Form Data.”

That should stop Acrobat 9 prompting you to log in to servers just as you are in the middle of doing something. Acrobat is doing it’s job, but it may be intrusive. Have you ever had those embarrassing chat messages from your fantasy football friend display on your screen right in the middle of a presentation to your boss? Well, it is not as bad as that, thankfully.

If you find that Acrobat 8 or 9 on Mac OS X is still prompting you to mount a server even though you have removed it from the Tracker, then there is an action that you can take to stop Acrobat from doing that. Follow the instructions located here. And take note of the warning presented there.

• To close a text pop-up (the pop-up where you type in a text note for the markup), press Escape.
• To open a text pop-up press Space or Enter Windows or Return (Mac)
• Once a comment or markup annotation is selected (you will see a border around the Note, for example, use the Tab key to move through them.
• Once a comment or markup annotation is selected, use the arrow keys to position it precisely.
• To add a new Sticky Note, press Ctrl/Cmd + 6.
• To quickly hide all comments press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + 8. To show all comments again press Ctrl/Cmd + 8.

Check the Acrobat or Reader Help for the shortcuts to accessing the various comment and markup tools themselves. And if I learn about any more shortcuts – or if you know of any that you can share – I’ll update this entry.

However, if you were working with external reviewers in a Shared Review in Acrobat 8, a WebDAV server was typically required as the repository for collecting those comments from others (the other option is to use a Network Folder, but those aren’t typically made available outside the firewall). For many small business or workgroups, setting up a WebDAV server may not be a viable option – you have a day job to worry about, or the servers are looked after by others in a different location.

Well, Acrobat 9 addresses that particular problem, especially for those who don’t have an IT resource that is just a phone call or stones throw away: Acrobat 9 can now use Acrobat.com servers as the repository to collect comments for Shared Reviews.

To use it in Acrobat 9 is straightforward. Just initiate a Shared Review as you normally would from the Comments taskbar button or menu, but in the Send for Shared Review wizard choose “…with Acrobat.com” as the location to collect comments from reviewers.

Once you’ve signed in with your free Adobe ID, you can just tell Acrobat 9 who you want to invite, what the deadline for the review is, and Acrobat 9 takes care of uploading the PDF document securely to your Share library on Acrobat.com for others to access. Your reviewers will get a link to download the document via an email from Acrobat.com.

From then on it works just like any other Shared Review. But there is one additional benefit…because you are using Acrobat.com, you can also turn on Page View Sharing (aka Send and Collaborate Live). Now you can also see who else is reviewing the document whilst seeing the comments they add, as well as the view of the page. Rad!

It’s important to note that using Acrobat.com for Shared Reviews only works with Acrobat 9. If you have initiated the Shared Review with Acrobat.com from Acrobat 9 Pro or Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, the document will also be enabled for commenting in the free Adobe Reader – again, version 9 only in this case.

Now those of you in small businesses, or working from home, or in a department without technical resources, can scratch off “IT Manager” from the list of tasks you have to do in addition to your regular day job. Unfortunately, we can’t help with the plumbing problems you have.

Acrobat 9 will tie the comment or markup you add to the video to a frame and write the timecode in to the text pop-up.

Then, you click on a comment in the Comments pane at the bottom of the document window and jump back to that particular frame. To see it in action, click here to view a video tutorial.

Here’s why I am excited about this capability…

1. You can use the same tools and methodologies you use already for text and images in a PDF document – no additional training required.
2. You can enable the PDF for comment, markup and analysis in Acrobat 9 Pro and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, and Reader 9 users can give their feedback on the video too.
3. You can do exactly the same thing with embedded Flash content and essentially any video clip (that you have the rights to share).
4. You can embed the video with other content – or a bunch of videos in a single file – and make all of it part of a Shared Review, say, as well as secure it to prevent changes or control access.

A few things to keep in mind though. For the Adobe Premiere Pro users reading this right now, this is not the same thing as Clip Notes. That is specifically for Premiere Pro-based workflows. The other important thing is that this is for Acrobat 9 and Reader 9 only, as it uses the new Rich Media Annotation type for embedded video and Flash.

var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-3983211-1″);
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();

Until you try this for yourself, the only way to really understand it is to see it in a real-world scenario.

Here’s a possible one…let’s say I’m an architect for a new office building. The project manager at my client’s location calls me, and leaves me a voicemail saying “Hey! We have a problem with the plans. Call me when you get this.” We’ve all received those messages before, right? So, you start leaving voicemails or sending emails to each other, never really understanding what the problem is or what to do about it. So frustrating. So unproductive. So 2007.

What I really want to do is to have my customer show me exactly where in the floor plan they have a problem, as if they were standing next to me moving my mouse, rubbing my back (this architect is very close to his clients). Only problem is they are on the other side of the country, and I have a meeting in 15 minutes with Mr. Trump about a major construction project. How can we control the view we have of the document right in Acrobat 9 or Reader 9 without having to go into an online or real meeting room, so I can find out where to make the change quickly and accurately?

This is where synchronized document views comes in. It literally allows you to share your view of a PDF document with up to 2 other friends at the same time. You are actually controlling the view of the PDF file in their installation of Acrobat 9 or Reader 9 (yes, Reader 9 users can participate too).

Here is one way you can get to the command…from the new Collaborate taskbar button in Acrobat 9…

Watch this video to see how it works in action…

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• It uses Acrobat.com In case you missed the news, Acrobat.com is a set of online hosted services from Adobe for sharing and collaboration. It’s currently free (and a public beta), but page view sharing uses Acrobat.com’s servers to handle the communication between clients. Acrobat.com uses HTTPS and SSL, and the review initiator can control who can download the PDF document. But it is the only server you can use today for synchronized document views.
• You need an Adobe ID to initiate. An Adobe ID is a way to authenticate yourself with Acrobat.com to enabled a document for Page View Sharing in Acrobat 9. If you don’t have one yet, you can get one right from within Acrobat 9 or Reader 9: it’s free, you sign up once, and the only information you need to provide includes your name, an email address, your password and the country you reside in. However, you do not need an Adobe ID to participate in page view sharing – you can just sign in as a guest.
• You need Acrobat 9 to initiate. But you can participate in page view sharing using only Reader 9. It’s not available in previous versions of either application. But you’ll upgrade, right?!
• It works with 3D content. It’s all about views. So if one of the participants changes the view of a 3D object in the PDF file, the others see the same 3D view. The implications for the manufacturing and AEC industry are huge for when it comes to rapid collaboration on documents.
• Only three participants at a time. Keep this in mind when distributing your collaboration-enabled documents. Just you and two friends. What you show your friends is up to you…
• It’s only for PDF documents in Acrobat 9 or Reader 9. This is not screen sharing. But if you need to share other application views, you can also the select the “Share My Screen…” from the new Collaborate Live panel, or from the Collaborate Taskbar button. This will open your free ConnectNow beta meeting room on Acrobat.com, and invite those two friends to join you in a desktop/application screen sharing session.

Which might bring up a good question…why not just use the screen sharing option that’s available? It’s a good discussion point, but one reason is that anyone who is participating in page view sharing can quickly and with minimal fuss share the view of the PDF file they have with others. It’s a conversation where everyone has a say and can contribute.

I think they call that collaboration, don’t they?!