Last updated on
Feb 26, 2026
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Also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2017, Adobe Acrobat 2020
- Acrobat User Guide
- Introduction to Acrobat
- Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
- Introducing the new Acrobat experience
- What's new in Acrobat
- Keyboard shortcuts
- System Requirements
- Download Adobe Acrobat
- Download Acrobat | Enterprise term or VIP license
- Download Acrobat 64-bit for Windows
- Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Windows
- Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Mac OS
- Install updates for Acrobat and Reader
- Update your Acrobat to the latest version
- Download Acrobat 2020
- Release Notes | Acrobat, Reader
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Opening and viewing PDFs
- Working with online storage accounts
- Acrobat and macOS
- Acrobat notifications
- Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
- Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
- Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
- Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
- Explore Acrobat tools
- Workspace basics
- Creating PDFs
- Editing PDFs
- Edit text in PDFs
- Edit images or objects in a PDF
- Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
- Edit scanned PDFs
- Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
- Optimizing PDFs
- PDF properties and metadata
- Links and attachments in PDFs
- PDF layers
- Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
- PDFs converted to web pages
- Setting up PDFs for a presentation
- PDF articles
- Geospatial PDFs
- Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
- Change the default font for adding text
- Delete pages from a PDF
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- Scan and OCR
- Forms
- PDF forms basics
- Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
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- PDF form field properties
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- Collect and manage PDF form data
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- Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
- Combining files
- Combine or merge files into single PDF
- Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
- Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
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- Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
- Participating in a PDF review
- Add comments to PDFs
- Adding a stamp to a PDF
- Approval workflows
- Managing comments | view, reply, print
- Importing and exporting comments
- Tracking and managing PDF reviews
- Saving and exporting PDFs
- Security
- Enhanced security setting for PDFs
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- Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
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- PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
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- Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
- Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
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Learn how to import and export comments from a PDF. You can also export comments to Word (Windows) or AutoCAD using Acrobat Pro on Windows.
Import Comments
Note
In Acrobat Reader, commenting features are available only in PDFs that have commenting enabled. PDFs in a review workflow typically include commenting rights.
Comments can be imported from a PDF document. You can also import comments from a Forms Data Format (FDF) file or an XFDF file, which is an XML-based FDF file. You cannot open and view FDF or XFDF files independently.
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To receive comments in your desired document, open it, select the Options menu
in the comments list, and then select Import Data File.NoteTo open the comments list, select Add Comments from the All Tools section in the left-hand pane.
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Select All Files (*.*) for Windows and All Files for macOS from the file type menu. If you know the file format of the comments you want to import, go to the file and then Press Enter or double-click it to open.
NoteThe comment positioning matches that of the file from which they were imported. If comments appear out of place, the source and recipient PDF documents are likely to be different. For example, if you import comments from a ten-page document to a two-page document, only comments from the first two pages appear.
Export comments
If you add comments to a PDF that isn’t part of a managed review, you may need to export your comments to send them to someone, or you may need to import the comments you receive. PDFs in a managed review workflow include special options that let you send or publish your comments, rather than export them.
When you export comments, you create a Forms Data Format (FDF) file that contains only comments. Consequently, FDF files are usually smaller than PDFs. You or another reviewer can then import the comments from the FDF file into the original PDF.
Export comments to a data file
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Open the document from which you want to export comments. Select the options menu
in the comments list, then select Export All To Data File. -
Name the file and select Acrobat FDF Files (*.fdf) or Acrobat XFDF Files (*.xfdf) for the file type.
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Specify a location for the file, and then select Save.
Export selected comments
Note
Exporting selected comments isn’t available in Acrobat Reader.
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In the comments list, select the comments you want to export.
NoteTo open the comments list, select Tools and then select Comments.
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From the options menu
in the comments list, select Export Selected To Data File. -
Name the file and select Acrobat FDF Files (*.fdf) or Acrobat XFDF Files (*.xfdf) for the file type.
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Specify a location for the file, and then select Save.
Export comments to Word (Windows)
In some instances, reviewers make comments in a PDF that was created from a Microsoft Word document. You can revise the original Word document by exporting these comments from the PDF. For example, text that has been inserted, crossed out, or replaced using the text edit tools in the PDF can be deleted or transferred directly to the source Word document. Formatting added to comments (for example, boldface text) is lost during this process and must be added to the Word document manually.
To revise a Word document using comments, you must create a tagged PDF from the Word document. Before you transfer text edits from the PDF, remove any extra words or information and then merge them to one PDF (if you have comments from multiple reviewers). If you plan to import comments more than once, you may want to make a copy of the Word document before you import the comments or comments may not be imported correctly.
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Do one of the following:
Select the options menu
in the comments list, and select Export To Word.Open the source document in Word. Select Acrobat Comments, and then select Import Comments From Acrobat. For Word 2013, select Acrobat, select Acrobat Comments, and then select Import Comments From Acrobat.
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Read the instructions, and select OK.
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In the Import Comments From Adobe Acrobat dialog box, select the PDF and Word files, select from the following options, and then select Continue:
Take comments from this PDF file
Browse to the PDF file that contains the comments.
Place comments in this Word file
Browse to the Word document to which you want to import comments.
All Comments
Imports all comments.
All Comments With Checkmarks
Imports only those comments marked with check marks.
Text Edits Only: Insertions, Deletions, And Replaces
Imports only those comments that you’ve added using the text edit commands in the Annotations panel.
Apply Custom Filters To Comments
Imports only comments that you specify by author, type, or status.
Turn Track Changes On Before Importing Comments
Shows the changes made by the imported comments in Word.
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(Optional) If you imported text edits, select Integrate Text Edits in the Successful Import dialog box to review and apply each edit individually. For each edit, select one of the following options:
Apply
Makes the change in the document and deletes the comment bubble. If a comment appears to be empty, you may want to integrate it to see if it’s a space or a paragraph return.
Apply All Remaining
Integrates all remaining text edits and deletes the comment bubbles.
Discard
Rejects the edit and deletes the comment bubble.
Next
Skips to the next text edit. Text edits that are skipped or not integrated appear as bubbles in the Word document.
Undo Last
Undoes the last text edit, including any manual changes.
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Delete comment bubbles that appear in the Word document:
Right-click the comment bubble and select Delete Comment.
Select Acrobat Comments, and then select Delete All Comments In Document. For Word 2013 and later, this option is on the Acrobat ribbon.
Export comments to AutoCAD (Acrobat Pro on Windows)
You may have reviewers add comments to a PDF that was created from an AutoCAD drawing. If you use AutoCAD PDFMaker to create a PDF, you can import comments into the AutoCAD drawing, rather than switch between AutoCAD and Acrobat. You can import most comment types, including drawing markups, sticky notes, stamps, and text edits.
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Save the PDF to ensure that recently added comments are included.
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Do one of the following:
Select the options menu
in the comments list, select Export To AutoCAD, and then specify the PDF and AutoCAD files in the Import Comments dialog box.In AutoCAD, select Acrobat Markups, and then Import Comments From Acrobat.
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In the Import Comments dialog box, specify the PDF containing the comments, which comments to import, and select Continue. If you import a custom set of comments, specify the set by ensuring that only the characteristics you want are selected. You must select at least one option in each category.
Show By Reviewer
Imports comments by individual reviewers.
Show By Type
Imports comments by type, such as text edits or note comments.
Show By Status
Imports comments by review status.
Show By Checked State
Imports comments that are checked.
All imported comments appear in the Adobe Acrobat Markups layer as custom objects you can edit, filter, or delete.
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To modify an imported comment (change the status, add a check mark, or modify text), right-click the comment, select Acrobat Comments, and then select an option.
