Best Practices for Using Adobe Acrobat Pro

How to most effectively and efficiently markup PDFs.

Adobe is well known for its creative software solutions, and along the way, they’ve made a great editing tool even better with Acrobat Pro. Acrobat is the ultimate tool for submitting proofs to clients and print vendors. We recommend these best practices to help communicate more clearly and get comments and revisions resolved faster.

1. Add PDF Comments instead of scanning handwritten notes.

Typed notes are easier to read and help avoid misinterpretation of different handwriting styles. And unlike handwritten notes, an editor can copy and paste the text, saving time.

Comments can be added to a PDF in Acrobat using different methods. The sticky note and highlighter tools are the default proofing tools when viewing a PDF.

Make Comments using this icon.

Tip: You can also highlight any selection of text within the PDF and a toolbar with the following options will automatically appear: Comment, Highlight, Underline, Strikethrough, Redact, and Copy. 

2. Use Highlight and Strikethrough to provide clear direction.

Avoid using the drawing tools, such as Line or Arrow, for text changes. While these tools are necessary at times, for text edits they’re inefficient and clutter the page. It’s best to simply use the Highlight, Replace Text or Strikethrough tools.

Highlight text.

This is best for providing clear direction on specific words you want to be changed.

To access more proofing options, select Highlight in the toolbar to open the Underline and Strikethrough options.

Strikethrough text.

This is best when you want a full word or more deleted. Don’t use it for deleting punctuation marks or single letters, since the mark will be very small and easy to miss.

Tip: Select any text within the PDF and hit the Backspace button to automatically Strikethrough that selected text. 

Add a note to replace text.

Select Comment in the toolbar to open more options and then select Replace Text.

This is best when you want to replace a sentence or more with different content. For changes to single words in a paragraph, use the highlight tool since the small strikethrough line could be easy to miss.

Example

Using Replace Text is much more efficient than using three different tools (Line tool, Arrow tool, and Text Box tool).

3. Don’t add single letter or punctuation inserts to paragraphs.

They are difficult to notice and increase possibilities for error—even when best practice #4 is followed.

It’s best to copy an entire paragraph from the PDF into a “sticky note” and make changes in the “comment field” (or use the Replace Text tool). This makes it easier for the editor to proofread the revisions.

Here is an example of using a “sticky note”. Place the note over the text you would like to replace with a directive, such as “Change to…”.

By putting a sticky note on the paragraph with the correct text instead of marking up each individual change, the editor can simply copy and paste, ensuring no changes are misinterpreted or missed completely.

4. If reviewing edits, check off each one when complete.

When reviewing edits, open the “Comments” list on the right side of the screen to see all edits requested. Check each edit off one at a time to ensure you catch everything. To do this, click the three dots in the top right corner of a comment to open the menu. Then select "Add Checkmark." If you want a blank checkbox to automatically appear in each note to eliminate opening the menu each time, you can adjust your Preferences. Open Acrobat Preferences and go to the Commenting category. From there, go to "Making Comments" and check the box "Show checkbox in comment note."

Then you can filter edits to view all “Checked” or “Unchecked” comments (open the Funnel icon at the top > select Checkmark > select Checked or Unchecked). This streamlines your workflow if you start reviewing edits but have to come back to them later or hand off the project to someone else.

Efficiency and effectiveness are not the only reasons to utilize Adobe Acrobat Pro best practices. Our collective electronic footprint is much cleaner and greener than printing paper copies, saving even more of our resources.

We hope these best practices and tips help simplify and streamline your editing process!