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How Can I Annotate and Proofread a PDF?
In this post, we’ll talk specifically about how PDF.Live’s editing tool works and how you can collaborate with others to proofread and edit a PDF document. How does the PDF comment tool work? How can I strikethrough text on a PDF? How do editing marks on a PDF work?
If you’re reviewing a document, you may have used a comment or annotation feature to highlight a specific section that you recommend the original author make changes to. This helps to ensure there’s no confusion over what edits need to be made in a specific section. PDF.Live’s editing allows you to do much more than just leave comments on a PDF. We’ll explain how you can use the tool to highlight, underline, strike through and insert text, which makes collaboration between content creators and editors easy.
Using PDFs for content proofing is efficient. The content creator can export the document as a PDF, which is a universal file format, so the editors don’t have to have the same software. For example, if a graphic designer creates an ebook in a program like Illustrator, the editor needn’t have to learn to use the same (expensive) software. The editor uses PDF.Live to markup the PDF and send it back to the graphic designer.
With PDFLive, you can markup, comment, and annotate any PDF using the online PDF Editor tool. Then, once the edits have been suggested, the content creator can take it back to the original program (Word, Illustrator, PowerPoint, etc.) and implement the changes.
PDF Proofreading to Annotate, Comment, Suggest, and More
If you have a PDF document open in the PDF.Live Editor, the Comment tab at the top of the screen will have most of the edit functions.
There are a lot of different functions in this section to take note of, depending on how you like to edit. Before you make any edits, though, it’s important to note the two options you have for interacting with the page.
On the far left, the Hand and Select tools are your two options.
- The Hand tool will allow you to drag the page, as well as objects that you create in the editor, around.
- The Select tool allows you to select pieces of text that you want to make edits or annotations to.
Making comments on a PDF: Next to Hand and Select icons is the Note feature.
This will create an external icon that, when hovered over, will display a piece of text that you want people viewing the PDF to see. This is useful for making edits or including additional information that you want a user to see.
If you want to edit text, such as highlighting, underlining, striking out or replacing text in specific sections, these options are located next to the Note feature.
Striking out text: Before you use this, you may have noticed that when you select a section of text with the Select feature we mentioned earlier, you’ll have some options already for how you want to edit the text.
You can either select the option directly here or use the submenu within the comment section. If you use the sub menu, you will have to select the text again.
So, what if you’re proofreading a document and want to suggest something in a particular section? The Callout feature is particularly useful for this, as it allows you to make a text box that points to a particular section.
Once you’ve made a callout, you can move it around with the hand tool, adjust the size of the box, and change where the arrow points.
Editing a PDF After Someone’s Proofed It
Let’s say someone proofread your document, and you want to make changes to it with the PDF.Live editor. The best way to do this is to pull up the original document that you created in Microsoft Office or a similar document editor. Then, have the edited PDF open and make the changes as necessary.
However, let’s say that you don’t have access to the original document or need to make a quick edit. The PDF.Live Edit section will allow you to make simple edits to the text or add images to your PDF.
If you need to add additional text, use the Add Text feature in the Edit section. Note that the text you add may not by default match the original font and style of the document. You can change the font style and size for the text you add in the Font section.
The tool won’t automatically match the font of your document, so it’s useful to know the original style used when creating the document. This is still useful for making small adjustments.
To do this, click Add text and then a section of the document you want to add text to. You can then type the text you want to add. Press Enter to finalize the text.
Once you edit the text, you can move it around by selecting the Edit text & images & shapes function. With this, you can click and drag a section of your document and resize or adjust its position in the document. If you want to change the size of the text only, highlight the text and use the font size menu.
Commenting, reviewing, proofreading, and editing a document is easier than ever with the powerful PDF.Live editor. Try it out for yourself for free (PDF.Live offers a limited number of free tasks each day, followed by low-priced monthly subscriptions, cancelable at any time, for our power users!).