13

I send the same PDF file to different reviewers and got differently annotated versions back.

Is there a way to combine the annotations into one file?

If this is a let-me-google-that-for-you-question, I am sorry. Please give me the keywords. All I found were articles about merging (the pages of) different PDFs into one file.

Improve this question
2
  • Googling merge pdf sticky notes gives some results. I don't know if it is helpful for you as I did not look into it in great detail. Here's a link to a result that looked useful to me.
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Jan 16, 2013 at 12:36
  • Would you refine your problem based on the several answers provided? If one works, selecting it or editing more detail on what you need would help other know if answers need to be edited or added.
    – bmike ♦
    Feb 1, 2022 at 12:40

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6

You can do this simply with Adobe Acrobat Professional. I tested this with Acrobat Professional version 8.3.1 on my Mac OS X 10.5.8 system.

Pick one of the annotated files to aggregate the comments. Open it with Adobe Acrobat Professional. For each of the other files, select the menu command Comments... Import Comments..., and from the resulting File Open dialog select each of the other files in turn. Acrobat will read the comments from the selected file and place them into the first file. A Comments List opens at the bottom of the window, showing all the comments in the document.

You now have a PDF file with all the comments in it. Save it under a different file name, and carry on with your work.

Note that you make this much easier for Acrobat if everyone marks up the same PDF file. Acrobat can import comments from one version of a document to a different version of a document, but it the comments won't always end up in the right place. The menu command Comments... Migrate Comments... is intended to help you get comments from the PDF form of an older document to the PDF form of a newer revision.

Acrobat Help content has useful entries for Import Comments.

In my humble opinion, every knowledge worker who touches PDF files should have a copy of Acrobat Professional (not just the free Reader). I may be biased — I worked for Adobe for many years, and I still hold their stock. But I believe that being able to do operations like importing and combining comments is hugely valuable for knowledge workers.

Improve this answer
1
  • some print-screen here (I struggled finding the "comment list")
    – JinSnow
    Nov 5, 2015 at 16:24
2

If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro you can:

  1. open one of the pdf you want to merge
  2. open the menu Comments (top right)
  3. under "Comments List" click on the option icon cf the printscreen
  4. select Import data file and select the second pdf

enter image description here

Improve this answer
1

Another option is to print the PDF file (Cmd+P) and then in the printing dialog save the file as PDF again. This merges the annotations.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    What? Are you saying that printing one PDF file to the other pre-existing file on disk merges annotations in both?
    – Ahmed Fasih
    Mar 18, 2014 at 18:22
1

I have found a free solution. You can merge comments using Foxit Reader. on Comment tab and choose import on Manage Comment section.

enter image description here

After that, chooes pdf type in browse file.

File Browser

Improve this answer
0

For iOS, the Xodo editor has "flatten" functionality that will make your annotations permanent.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    This site is for Apple hardware and software - so what happens on Android is off topic
    – mmmmmm
    Feb 1, 2022 at 10:53
  • @mmmmmm didnt notice, fixed
    – srghma
    Feb 1, 2022 at 13:32

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .