Why I Run Four Different Versions of Acrobat

Lately, there's been quite  a stir with the introduction of Acrobat DC (Document Cloud). It joins the rest of Adobe's Cloud family: Creative Cloud and Marketing Cloud.

But as much as I love getting new features from the continuous update cycle with Adobe's cloud services, I still keep all my old versions of Acrobat installed. The reason is because each new version of Acrobat, while it has new and exciting features, I have built a workflow around the many of the old features that have been dropped in the newer versions of Acrobat. I want to share with you some of the features that I use every day that have been dropped as Acrobat has grown older.

Acrobat 9

Sort Comments by Color

Sort Comments by Color

This is one of the core features of my workflow. I use about 15 different colors and I need to be able to sort them. I have written several articles about this feature:

• A Closer Look at the Sub-Level Sorting When Sorting Comments by Color In Acrobat 9
• Sort comments by fill color, not just stroke color
• Change sub-level sorting of Sort Comments by Color to sort by order of appearance in the document (not by Y-coordinates)

I have also done a video: Sort Comments by Color in Acrobat 9

Because Adobe has abandoned this feature in Acrobat, I have been on the hunt to find an alternative software that will sort comments by color. The only one I can find is Nitro Pro, but their software is windows-only (and I am on a mac).

Handy Commenting Toolbar

In Acrobat 9, there was an amazing little handy toolbar at the bottom of the Comments tab. It had all kinds of buttons for marking comments with checkmark, trashing comments, sorting and filter comments, and navigating through comments. Sadly, this handy toolbar no longer exists in recent versions of Acrobat.

One of my favorite buttons on that toolbar is "Collapse All." Which brings me to my next item...

Sort by Checkmark Status: Acrobat 9

 

Collapsable Sorting

In a typical PDF document, I'll have anywhere from 50-100 highlights. I like to sort them by type, by color, and by checkmark status. In Acrobat 9, I was able to collapse all these down into sub groups. This allows me to easily see if any of the comments are still unchecked. That feature doesn't exist in Acrobat X, XI, or DC. So now if I want to see whether I have unchecked comments, I have to scroll all the way down to the bottom. And often, the scroll wheel is not functional when I hover over the comments list. So I have to click and drag. What a pain. Plus, the checkmarks are difficult to see in Acrobat X and XI.

Sort by Checkmark Status: Acrobat X

They did make much-needed improvement in Acrobat DC: they made the checkmarks much easier to see.

Sort By Checkmark Status: Acrobat DC

Right Click > Mark with Checkmark

Acrobat 9 was better with commenting in SO many ways (I daresay in every way). One of them was the ability to easily mark comments as checked. Now, I suspect that Adobe would prefer people to use the set Status capability, but as a workflow of One, I find that checkmarks are easier for me to work with. I have two statuses: "Done" or "Not Done." So the simple checkmark works just fine for me. I really have no use for 6 different statuses. Perhaps I would find Statuses useful if I was part of a large workgroup and worked with a team of editors, but I don't. It's just me.

Set Status: Review

Set Status: Migration

In Acrobat 9, it was very easy to mark a comment as checked. You simply right-clicked on it and chose "Mark with Checkmark." Alternatively, there were also two different places in the Handy Commenting Toolbar to mark the comment as checked.

Right-Click: Acrobat 9

It's easy to mark a comment as checked in the Commenting Toolbar!

Sadly, in Acrobat X and going forward, the right-click > Mark as Checked feature was removed, as was the handy Commenting toolbar. So now the only way to mark something as checked is in the giant comment list (which is now by default vertical, as opposed to horizontal.

Right Click: Acrobat X

Right Click: Acrobat DC

Comment Pane Orientation

I really prefer my comments displayed horizontally, as it was in Acrobat 9. In Acrobat X, they made the comment pane display vertically, and I think there was such outrage over it that Adobe conceded in Acrobat XI and added a new item to the Options in the Comments Pane: Undock Comments. It allows you to have a floating comments pane and move it down to the bottom (of wherever else you liked).

Comments Options: Acrobat XI

But for me, one of the main reasons I like my comments displayed horizontally is because that gave me access to all those handy tools, located conveniently right above the comments they were used on. One of the things that was so great about that toolbar is that is expandable. It always expands to fit the width of your document. So it your document window is narrow, the commenting toolbar adjusts and just displays the icons.

Commenting Toolbar: Narrow

But if your document window is wide, the commenting toolbar expands to display not just the icons, but the tool names as well.

Commenting Toolbar: Wide

So while we are able to undock the comments pane in Acrobat XI, it really did us no good, because that handy tool bar was replaced with an infinitely scalable Find field. Really?

Undocked Comments Pane: Acrobat XI

Acrobat X

Actions

To Me, Acrobat X and Acrobat XI are very similar. The only major difference that I can think of (keep in mind that this is just in my workflow) is that Acrobat X actions could be run in one click instead of three. Here's an article I wrote about that: How to Run Acrobat XI Actions in 1-click Instead of 3

Sticky Note Font Choice

As far back as I can remember, we've had basic text formatting controls within our sticky notes. Here's an article about that: How to Edit Font Properties Within a PDF Sticky Note

But starting inAcrobat X, we could also change the font used in the sticky notes. In Acrobat DC, the default font changed from Lucinda Grande to Helvetica.

Commenting Preferences: Acrobat 9 

Commenting Preferences: Acrobat X

Commenting Preferences: Acrobat DC

Printing

I do all my printing from Acrobat X. I have a large printer that duplexes both letter and tabloid paper. I use a special, slightly thick, three-hole drilled paper with a reinforcement strip along the drilled edge. This paper is not cheap; I have to special order it. A couple of times I accidentally started printing a large document from Acrobat XI, and all the sheets came out backwards and upside down. For some reason, the page orientation settings are different in Acrobat X and XI. Rather then print using XI (which offers no additional printing capabilities), it's easier for me to just print from Acrobat X, so I don't have to figure out a new way to set my print presets and load my paper.

Acrobat XI

I did notice that Actions run much faster in Acrobat XI than they did in Acrobat X. So I'll often use XI to run my actions. I like to create my actions in Acrobat X (for the 1-click capability) and then run them in Acrobat XI (for the speed). How to Run Acrobat XI Actions in 1-click Instead of 3

Acrobat DC

I wish I could be excited about Acrobat DC, I really do. But for my workflow, I have absolutely no use for storing my documents on the cloud for mobile access, or send and track, or send for signature, or any of the other new features that are so touted with Acrobat DC. I really wish Adobe would just restore the functionality they had before, or at least open up the back end of the software somehow so that independent developers could develop plugins to restore the functionality.

I occasionally use Acrobat DC, but it's always on accident, such as when I open a PDF from Safari and it automatically opens Acrobat DC.

Acrobat DC is the default PDF viewer for Safari now

So there you have it: this is why I use four three different versions of Acrobat.

Edit: 9-13-918
If you need an easier way to create and manage annotations in your PDFs, check out my article on Bluebeam Revu. It's an amazing program designed specifically to meet the needs of users in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. It's like the developers at Revu read all my Acrobat feature requests, built everything I asked for, and then threw in some bonus features!

Commenting Panes: a Comparison Between Acrobat DC and Bluebeam Revu

I've been an Acrobat user for nearly 20 years. I also daily monitor the Adobe Acrobat forums and answer questions from other Acrobat users. I've even recorded a LinkedInLearning course on Acrobat. I've pushed Acrobat as far as I can take it for my PDF commenting needs. I still use Acrobat daily for other functions, but for nearly all my PDF commenting, I now use Bluebeam Revu.

Bluebeam Revu was designed by engineers, for reviewing engineering drawings. And since much of my work involves doing just that, I've found that Bluebeam Revu meets my needs like no other PDF editing software. Today, I'd like to show in detail one of the reasons I like it so much.

I have an 11x17 mechanical arrangement which I've color coded by system. At first, the two programs don't look that much different.

Comments Sorted By Color: Acrobat DC

Comments Sorted By Color: Bluebeam Revu

While both sets of comments are listed in collapsable groups, the comments in Revu also display important categories in columns, much like a spreadsheet.

Here they are expanded. Notice how the color and a checkbox are both displayed in each and every comment. Because the comments pane is totally customizable, I've chosen to hide the irrelevant information, such as author name and date.

Expanded Comments: Bluebeam Revu

Now take a look at the same set of comments in Acrobat DC. Notice how prominent the author name and date are in the Acrobat comments pane. The icons are also huge, and gray (and unpopular). And the checkboxes are not there. (If you want to mark something as checked, you first have to click on the comment to have the checkbox display, then you have to click on the checkbox. Each. And. Every. Time.

Expanded Comments: Acrobat DC

Now let's take a look at how the comments display when additional information is added. I've chosen to display the author name, page, and comments. Again, all the content is displayed in a handy grid, making it very simple to scroll through the list and look for the information I need. Easy!

Expanded comment detail: Bluebeam Revu

Here is the same information displayed in Acrobat. Since the Comments pane is not customizable, it still displays information which is irrelevant to me for this document: the date and the author name. And the text in the comment pop-ups are not displayed in a grid view, but rather, tucked underneath the author name, making it harder to find them. And since the icons are gray (And not the comment color), it's easy to scroll down an no longer be able to see which color the comment actually is.

Expanded comment detail: Acrobat DC

According to Adobe, you can resize the Comments pane, but it's basically useless, since the information isn't listed in a grid view. So much wasted space!

Acrobat DC Comments Pane Resized

 Here is the comment pane in Revu, resized, with lots if useful information displayed. Great stuff! You can customize not only which columns to display, but their order and width.

Customized Comment Pane: Revu

Here are the same comments viewed in Acrobat. Making the panel wider serves no benefit. The panel cannot be customized, and important information is left out. It does not display the subject, the status names, or who set the status.

Comments Pane: Acrobat DC

One must hover over each status icon (which is the green thumbs up, green checkmark, red X, and yellow thumbs down. Only when you hover over each status icon does it say what the status is and who set the status.

Comments Pane: Acrobat DC, hovering over a Status icon

If that wasn't confusing enough, the "Completed By" status icon is a green checkmark, not to be confused with the regular checkmark (the blue one on the right).

Acrobat DC: Two checkmarks are confusing

Another noteworthy difference between the comments panes of Revu and Acrobat is how easier it is to see the selected comment in a list. In Acrobat, when you click on a comment, it expands, and takes up even more space, assuming that you want to type something in the comment box. The third comment down is selected, and the fourth one down is simply hovered over.

Acrobat DC: One selected comment, one hovered over

In Revu, it's WAY easier to see which comment is selected (because it's blue, the way it used to be in earlier versions of Acrobat). There is no change in comment appearance when it's hovered over.

Bluebeam Revu: One selected comment

It's worthwhile to note that Acrobat 9 has a very similar layout to Bluebeam Revu. Each comment icon is colored, and the information is somewhat listed in a grid.

• The status is written out, as opposed to being an icon
• The Subject is listed (in this case, "Electrical").
• Each comment has a checkbox.
• The author name and date are still displayed, and that can't be changed.
• The selected comment has a thick black border, making it easy to see which comment is selected.
• Acrobat 9 also has a handy commenting pane which displays all kinds of useful functions. 

While I prefer the layout of Acrobat 9 Comments pane when compared to later versions of Acrobat, it's still not as useful or user friendly as that of Revu.

Acrobat 9 Comments Pane with Handy Commenting Toolbar

PDF comments in Revu can be exported as three different formats:

Export Comments As: Revu

PDF Comments in Acrobat can be exported as FDF or XFDF files, but not as CSV, or PDF Files.

Export Comments As: Acrobat

It's clear that the difference between Bluebeam Revu and Acrobat is HUGE! Plus, Revu has the added benefit of sold as box software, meaning that there are no monthly subscriptions fees to pay. Pay once, use forever.

If you like'd to learn more about Bluebeam Revu check out these articles:

• Introducing my Favorite Features of Bluebeam Revu PDF Editing and Markup Software
• Things I Love About Bluebeam Revu: Part 2 
• How to Email a PDF using Bluebeam Revu
• How to Make a Multiple Color Highlighting Palette in Bluebeam Revu

Understanding the Interchangeability of PDF Comments Across Adobe Programs: Part 2

In my previous article, I shared a bit how Notes transfer between Acrobat and Photoshop. When a document in Photoshop is saved as PDF, notes created in Photoshop actually appear in Acrobat. The comment author name in from Acrobat gets populated into the author name in the Photoshop Notes panel.

Interestingly, Photoshop only imports PDF sticky notes, not text correction markups or drawing annotations. Acrobat does provide a somewhat helpful warning. "The PDF document contains annotation types that are not supported by Photoshop. These annotations will be ignored."

That message isn't completely clear in what it will do to your Acrobat PDF annotations. Photoshop will only display Sticky Notes; nothing else. Those are the only type of annotation that is interchangeable between Photoshop and Acrobat. The message would be more accurate if it said "deleted" instead of "ignored."

Let's explore the difference of Acrobat notes and Photoshop Notes, and see who one is better suited for which purpose.  This is a photograph that requires me to use the Notes in both programs. This electrical panel has about 100 breaker labels, and I need to be able to easily find each one of them.

Here are my requirements for labeling all these breakers. 

1. So I need to label the breakers in a way that I can run a Find on them when I need to (because Acrobat can't successfully run OCR on this image).
2. I need to be able to have the labels small, so they don't take up too much space and obscure my screen while I am labeling them.
3. I need the labels color-coded.

Both Acrobat and Photoshop will allow me to do item #1 (label the breakers), but only Acrobat will allow me to run a Find on the labels.

Acrobat: Search Comments

Photoshop can handle #2: labeling while keeping the labels small. It is a much better solution than Acrobat. See how large this comment is in Acrobat? It takes up way to much space! If you click on a comment in Acrobat, the giant pop-up note covers the page.

Comments in Acrobat obscure the image.

Acrobat does have a preference that will align the sticky notes to the edge of the document, but it only works well if you have the comments pane closed.

The width of neither the Comments pane nor the sticky note pop-ups are changeable, so if you have both open, they take up a huge amount of screen real estate.

Acrobat Comment aligned to the edge of the page, with Commenting Pane open

When viewing document, Acrobat centers your document in the window, giving you no ability to drag it over to the left a bit to free up some space on the right for the comments. See all that wasted gray space on the left?

All the gray space is wasted! 

Contrast this with Photoshop. When I click on a note, it doesn't automatically pop-up. The content simply displays in the Notes panel. Plus, I can drag the image over and fully utilize the entire window. The note icon is so small and elegant! Can you even find it in the image below? It doesn't obscure the image, and it's contents are displayed unobtrusively in the Notes pane, which I can either dock or drag wherever I want.

So Photoshop is definitely where I want to do my labeling.

Acrobat can handle item #3: color-coding. This is a very important part of my workflow, and I have written about it extensively. At first glance, Photoshop has no options for Notes. All you can do is navigate through the notes, delete them, or close the panel.

Photoshop Notes Panel

 Compare that with the Photoshop Character Panel, which is rich with options, including the ability to change the color.

Photoshop Character Panel

For real customization of my notes, I have historically used Acrobat, because the user interface exists and is easy to find.

We've already discovered that Notes made on a Photoshop PDF in Acrobat. But one day, I happened to open in Photoshop a Photoshop PDF that I had color-coded in Acrobat. And guess what happened?!

Colored Notes in Photoshop!

The notes were colored! It turns out that Photoshop has the ability to display different colors of notes! After using Photoshop notes for years, I recently discovered that when the Note tool is selected, the control bar displays two options: Author (which is blank by default), and Color. It is these two attributes that are interchangeable with Acrobat. 

Notes options in the Photoshop Control Bar

The default behavior for attributes is different program to program. For example:

• InDesign: The default attributes of new objects are set when nothing is selected.
• Illustrator: The default attributes of new objects are picked up from the last object that you had selected.
• Acrobat: the default properties of new annotations are set when you choose "Make Properties Default."

In Photoshop, the default properties of new notes are more like Illustrator: they are picked up by whatever note you most recently had selected. Of course, you can also simply change the color in the Control bar. However, it's important to note that if you want to utilize Acrobat's Sort Comments By Color feature, the colors you choose need to match exactly. So rather than assigning all the Note colors using the Color Picker eyedropper, I prefer to simply either copy and paste the notes, and then change their content, or click on a note that is the color that I want, and then make a new note set to that color.

How to Sort and Search Notes

Once you've got your notes in Photoshop, it's time to head back over to Acrobat. But first, let's take a final look altho completely notated Photoshop document.

Photoshop PDF with Colored Notes

Save your file as a Photoshop PDF, being sure to check the Notes checkbox.

Now open that file in Acrobat. The notes are color-coded and full searchable! Now I have all the functional that I need for my notes, but I didn't have to endure the overbearing and inflexible user interface of Acrobat commenting to create this.

Colored and Searchable Notes in Acrobat