Editing PDFs—a Quick Reference   (Back to Table of Contents)

• The Acrobat tool most useful to editors is Highlight Text. The Note tool can also be handy.
  
  
• The Pencil tool, and other tools such as Insert Text At Cursor and Cross Out Text for Deletion, let you make marks similar to standard editing marks on hard copy, but they can be difficult and time-consuming to use.
  
  
• Acrobat tools don’t toggle on and off as Word tools do. Instead, most tools remain selected until you select another one. If a tool doesn’t stay selected and you want it to, you can keep it on by choosing Keep Tool Selected under View > Toolbars > Properties Bar.
  
  
• Use Show Comments List for an easy review of all your comments (and those of others) in a file.
  
  
• Use Print with Comments Summary to print comments only, or the current file and comments, in different layouts of your choice.
  
  
• Use Summarize Comments to create a new file that incorporates your comments as part of it (for further work) and shows you how your chosen print options will look. Use it, too, if you want to print only certain portions or elements of your file. You can also print from Summarize Comments once you’ve made your adjustments.
  
  
• Acrobat’s Find feature is not as comprehensive as the Find feature in Word. The Search feature is more helpful.
  
  
• When returning your edited file, if you’ve used multiple tools, include in your cover note which tools you’ve used for what different purposes.
  
  
• When e-mailing your edited PDF file, click on Save As and answer yes to the prompt “Replace existing file?” This optimizes the file and reduces its size.