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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. What's new in Acrobat
    3. Keyboard shortcuts
    4. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. Action Wizard (Acrobat Pro)
    12. PDFs converted to web pages
    13. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    14. PDF articles
    15. Geospatial PDFs
    16. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    17. Change the default font for adding text
    18. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to JPG
    4. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    5. File format options for PDF export
    6. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. About certificate signatures
    5. Certificate-based signatures
    6. Validating digital signatures
    7. Adobe Approved Trust List
    8. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

Automatically collect everyone's comments in a single PDF file. Track progress and consolidate comments.

Watch a quick video tutorial and get started

Share a PDF for review using the Adobe Document Cloud review service

Available in: Acrobat

Use the Adobe Document Cloud review service to easily share PDF files for review from Acrobat desktop application, the Document Cloud web, or Acrobat Reader mobile app. When reviewers click the URL in the email invitation from their computer, they can easily provide their feedback in a browser without having to sign in or install any additional software.

You can use the service to share PDF files for review in one of the following ways:

An anonymous or public link makes the files accessible to anyone who clicks the link. Follow the steps below to create a review link, and share it using your email client.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat.

  2. Click the Share A Link To This File icon ().

    Share a link to the file

    Note:
    • The computer must be connected to the Internet to start a shared review in Acrobat.
    • You can also start a shared review directly from other applications that use PDFMaker, such as Microsoft Word. Choose Acrobat > Create And Send For Review.

  3. By default, the Allow Comments switch is turned on. To share the file only for viewing, click the switch to turn it off. Click Create Link.

    Copy link and share

    The Get a Link prompt displays the progress.

    File upload and sharing progress

  4. The link is created and copied by default. Share the link with other recipients. The shared file is open in Acrobat viewer after the link is created. You can also perform any of the following actions from the right pane:

    • Add People with whom you want to share the document
    • Unshare File
    • Save A Copy of the file
    Share the created link with other recipients

Reviewer experience

The reviewers receive an email invitation with a link to the review PDF. When they click the link or the Review button in the invitation, the PDF opens in a web browser. They can use the commenting tools to add comments to the PDF. They can also use Acrobat Reader or Acrobat desktop applications to add comments. 

For more information, see Participating in a PDF review.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat.

  2. Click the Share This File With With Others icon ().

    Invite people for viewing or commenting

    Note:
    • The computer must be connected to the Internet to start a shared review in Acrobat.
    • You can also start a shared review directly from other applications that use PDFMaker, such as Microsoft Word. Choose Acrobat > Create And Send For Review.

  3. Enter the email addresses of the recipients or choose from the Address Book. The Allow Comments switch is turned on by default.

  4. (Optional) Enter a message to the recipients.

  5. (Optional) Add Deadline and Reminder for the recipients if required. Select the date and time, and click Done.

  6. Click Send. The link is sent to the recipients instantly; you won’t have to wait for the file to be uploaded to the cloud.

Initiate a review using @mention in a PDF

Use @mention in your personal commenting notes to start a review. The @mentions includes your organizational contacts and your synced personal contacts list. The moment you use @mention in a PDF file, the review mode gets enabled for you. The reviewers get an invitation email with a link to the Document Cloud shared review file.

Use @mentions to start a review

Reviewer experience

The reviewers receive an email invitation with a link to the review PDF. When they click the link or the Open button in the invitation, the PDF opens in a web browser. They can use the commenting tools to add comments to the PDF. They can also use Acrobat Reader or Acrobat desktop applications to add comments.

For more information, see Participating in a PDF review.

For information on tracking the reviewers' activity on the document, see Tracking and managing PDF reviews.

Share a PDF for review by hosting it on Sharepoint, WebDAV server, or a network folder

Available in: Acrobat, Acrobat 2020, and Acrobat 2017 (Classic)

  1. If you're using Acrobat 2020 or Acrobat 2017 (Classic), skip to the next step. If you're using Acrobat, do the following before you initiate the review:

    1. Go to Edit > Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed.
    2. In the left pane, click Reviewing. Under the Shared Review Options section, deselect the Share For Review Using Adobe Document Cloud check box, and then click OK.

  2. Choose Tools > Send For Review. The Send for Comments toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.

    Note:

    You can also start a shared review directly from other applications that use PDFMaker, such as Microsoft Word. Choose Adobe PDF > Convert To Adobe PDF And Send For Shared Commenting. For Office 2010 applications, choose Acrobat > Create And Send For Shared Commenting.

  3. In the secondary toolbar, click Send For Shared Commenting.

    Note:

    If prompted, select a PDF file that you want to send for shared review.

  4. Select the way you want to collect comments from your reviewer and click Next.

  5. Select how you would like to host the shared review file and specify the location.

    • Network folders: If all recipients are within a local area network, network folders and SharePoint servers are the best choices for a comment server. Network folders are generally the cheapest and most reliable.
    • SharePoint/Office 365 subsites: If your recipients work behind a firewall and all have access to a common server, you can use your own internal server location, such as a Microsoft SharePoint site. For more information, see Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint/Office 365 sites.
    • WebDAV servers: WebDAV servers (web servers that use the WebDAV protocol) are best used only if your reviewers are outside a firewall or a local area network. For more information on how to configure Acrobat to use a WebDAV service, see Hosting a Shared Review: An Alternative to Acrobat.com.

  6. Choose a delivery and collection method. Click Next.

  7. Enter a new profile name and click Next, or click Next to use the default.

  8. On the email screen, specify the following settings as needed:

    Delivery Method

    Click to specify a different delivery and collection method from the one that is currently selected.

    To, Cc

    Enter the email addresses of your reviewers. Insert a semicolon or a return after each address. Click the To or Cc button to select email addresses from your email application address book.

    Subject, Message

    Preview and edit the email subject and message as needed. Acrobat saves any changes you make and displays them the next time you send a document for review. To use the default email message, click Reset Default Message.

    Review Deadline

    Click to specify a different date or no deadline. After the review deadline expires, reviewers cannot publish comments.

    Note:

    If the review deadline expires while a reviewer has the document open in Acrobat, then the reviewer can publish comments before closing the document.

  9. Click Send.

The shared PDF that you send includes the Annotation and Drawing Markups panels, and instructions in the document message bar.

Acrobat creates a copy of the shared review file, named [original filename]_review.pdf, in the same folder as the original file you specified for the review.

Start an email-based review

Available in: Acrobat, Acrobat 2020, and Acrobat 2017 (Classic)

When you start an email-based review, you send out a tracked copy of the PDF, enabling you to easily merge comments that you receive. (Form fields in a PDF aren’t fillable during the review.) After initiating a shared review, you can also start an email-based review with the same PDF.

Before you start an email-based review, make sure that your email application or webmail account is configured to work with Acrobat.

  1. If you're using Acrobat 2020 or Acrobat 2017 (Classic), skip to the next step. If you're using Acrobat, do the following before you initiate the review:

    1. Go to Edit > Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed.
    2. In the left pane, click Reviewing. Under the Shared Review Options section, deselect the Share For Review Using The Adobe Document Cloud check box, and then click OK.

  2. Choose Tool > Send For Review.

    The Send for Comments toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.

  3. Click Send For Comments By Email.

  4. If prompted, enter information in the Identity Setup dialog box.

  5. Specify a PDF if it isn’t already open, and then click Next. The PDF that you specify becomes the master file. Merge the comments you receive from reviewers into this file.

  6. Specify reviewers by typing their email addresses. Insert a semicolon or a return between each address. Click Address Book to select email addresses from your email application or webmail address book.

  7. Preview and edit the email invitation as needed, and then click Send Invitation.

  8. Select an email client to send the invite and click Continue.

    A copy of the PDF is sent to the reviewers as an attachment. When this PDF attachment is opened, it presents commenting tools and instructions.

After you receive comments from reviewers, you can merge the comments into the master PDF.

  1. After a reviewer sends you comments, open the attached file in your email application. If the email application can’t find the original version of the PDF, it prompts you to browse for it.
    Note:

    It’s possible to forward comments to the initiator if you didn’t initiate the review. First merge these comments into your copy of the PDF. Then send the comments; see Send comments in email. If you’ve sent your comments already, the initiator receives only new comments. Merged comments retain the original author name.

  2. If you initiated the review, the Merge Comments dialog box appears. Select one of the following options:

    Yes

    Opens the master copy of the PDF and merges all comments into it. After comments are merged, save the master PDF.

    No, Open This Copy Only

    Opens the reviewer’s copy of the PDF with comments. If you select this option, you can still merge comments by choosing Comments > Merge Comments Onto Master PDF.

    Cancel

    Closes the reviewer’s PDF that contains comments.

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