Make pdf document commentable
GreenH
says "Commenting: Not Allowed", is it possible to change this and make
the pdf document commentable or is it not possible to change it (if
not possible, is it some feature that should have been added when
creating the document and not possible to add it now )
Thanks,
Gree
Aandi Inston
I assume you have Adobe Reader. This is not a security setting, it's
just the normal state of affairs.
Someone with Acrobat Professional 7.0 or later can prepare the PDF in
a special way called "enabling". This locks out some things, and
allows others, so people with Reader then can add comments.
Someone with Acrobat doesn't have to do this, because they can add
comments anyway to any unsecured file.
----------------------------------------
Aandi Inston
Please support usenet! Post replies and follow-ups, don't e-mail them.
PDFrank
PDF-XChange.
GreenH
Hey Aandi,
Thanks, that helped, but it's very expensive (for my only purpose of
enabling commenting through adobe reader),
do you know of cheaper solutions.
Thanks again,
Gree.
GreenH
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I tried PDF-XChange, seems I didn't figure
out how to achieve my task using this application,
I tried (i) PDF-Tools -> Simple PDF page extraction , in which for
security I chose encryption and checked the 'Allow commenting' and
saved the file
(ii) similarty , Edit Page/Content Settings
How can I get this work?
Thanks again,
Gree
Aandi Inston
>On Sep 28, 1:23 pm, qu...@dial.pipex.con (Aandi Inston) wrote:
>> GreenH <Green.Horn....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >Most of the pdf documents I come across have a security setting which
>> >says "Commenting: Not Allowed", is...
>>
>> I assume you have Adobe Reader. This is not a security setting, it's
>> just the normal state of affairs.
> Thanks, that helped, but it's very expensive (for my only purpose of
>enabling commenting through adobe reader),
>do you know of cheaper solutions.
No, there is no cheaper (legal) solution to enabling for commenting in
Reader. Only Adobe software can do this.
Don't mix this up with security settings, which a lot of software can
set (including PDF-XChange, as you've tried). Security settings can
only take away permissions, not add them.
Eugen
> GreenH <Green.H...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Sep 28, 1:23 pm, qu...@dial.pipex.con (Aandi Inston) wrote:
> >> GreenH <Green.Horn....@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >Most of the pdf documents I come across have a security setting
> >> >which says "Commenting: Not Allowed", is...
> >>
> >> I assume you have Adobe Reader. This is not a security setting,
> >> it's just the normal state of affairs.
>
> > Thanks, that helped, but it's very expensive (for my only purpose of
> >enabling commenting through adobe reader),
> >do you know of cheaper solutions.
>
> No, there is no cheaper (legal) solution to enabling for commenting in
> Reader. Only Adobe software can do this.
>
> Don't mix this up with security settings, which a lot of software can
> set (including PDF-XChange, as you've tried). Security settings can
> only take away permissions, not add them.
I have the same problem today. I found a way to postprocess a PDF with
the 'pdftk' tool. I managed to set a user password (to open the file)
and an owner password (to modify it). When I open the file in Acrobat
Reader (version 8), I'm prompted to give the password. Then I can view
the security settings, and they are all 'not allowed' (except filling
forms), and when I go to the 'show details' in the security tab, I can
see the permissions I have specified, especially commenting allowed.
I conclude, it seems to be possible to add the attribute 'commenting
allowed' to an existing unsecured PDF, but I wonder why acrobat does
not give me the owner status although I entered the password.
If someone can help here, we perhaps have a solution.
Eugen
--
Eugen <news ... @ ... lamers-home.de>
Aandi Inston
>
>.... I managed to set a user password (to open the file)
>and an owner password (to modify it). When I open the file in Acrobat
>Reader (version 8), I'm prompted to give the password. Then I can view
>the security settings, and they are all 'not allowed' (except filling
>forms), and when I go to the 'show details' in the security tab, I can
>see the permissions I have specified, especially commenting allowed.
>
>I conclude, it seems to be possible to add the attribute 'commenting
>allowed' to an existing unsecured PDF, but I wonder why acrobat does
>not give me the owner status although I entered the password.
There isn't any magic "owner status" in Reader that overcomes the
limitations that are otherwise there.
>
>If someone can help here, we perhaps have a solution.
Acrobat Professional will let you add this option for files in Reader.
Eugen
qu...@dial.pipex.con (Aandi Inston) wrote:
> Eugen wrote:
> >
> >.... I managed to set a user password (to open the file)
> >and an owner password (to modify it). When I open the file in Acrobat
> >Reader (version 8), I'm prompted to give the password. Then I can
> >view the security settings, and they are all 'not allowed' (except
> >filling forms), and when I go to the 'show details' in the security
> >tab, I can see the permissions I have specified, especially
> >commenting allowed.
> >
> >I conclude, it seems to be possible to add the attribute 'commenting
> >allowed' to an existing unsecured PDF, but I wonder why acrobat does
> >not give me the owner status although I entered the password.
>
> There isn't any magic "owner status" in Reader that overcomes the
> limitations that are otherwise there.
I used the following command (tool 'pdftk', OS Linux) to change the
security settings of the file 'input.pdf':
<code>
pdftk input.pdf output file.pdf owner_pw Eugen user_pw User \
allow modifyannotations
</code>
This generated the new file 'file.pdf'. The tool 'pdfinfo' tells me
Title: The Title
Subject:
Keywords:
Author:
Creator: LaTeX with hyperref package
Producer: pdfeTeX-1.21a
CreationDate: Wed Oct 3 20:04:09 2007
Tagged: no
Pages: 160
Encrypted: yes (print:no copy:no change:no addNotes:yes)
Page size: 595.276 x 841.89 pts (A4)
File size: 3430972 bytes
Optimized: no
PDF version: 1.4
Acrobat reader also tells me this when I ask to show me the security
details. So obviously, the attribute is present.
> >If someone can help here, we perhaps have a solution.
>
> Acrobat Professional will let you add this option for files in Reader.
This is not helpful. The attribute is set in the file, the pdftk tool
has changed the attributes, the reader can open the (encrypted) file
(after giving either the user/open or the owner/modify passwort). I
quite doubt that the tool only fakes to set these attributes and that
the reader only pretends to recognise this attribute set, and also that
only Acrobat Professional can set it.
Is there someone outside not intending to sell copies of Acrobat
Professional to poor private users?
Aandi Inston
>I used the following command (tool 'pdftk', OS Linux) to change the
>security settings of the file 'input.pdf':
Yes, this changes the security settings.
The ability to comment in Reader is NOT related to security settings.
This process, called "reader enabling" is an entirely different thing.
>> Acrobat Professional will let you add this option for files in Reader.
>
>This is not helpful.
But it is true. You may accept it, or not, but I don't think I can
explain it any more clearly.
Hans-Werner Hilse
On Wed, 3 Oct 2007 20:43:36 +0200 (CEST) Eugen <ne...@lamers-home.de>
wrote:
> Is there someone outside not intending to sell copies of Acrobat
> Professional to poor private users?
just as a side note: You probably got no other answers because Aandi
hit the nail pretty well even in his first reply -- as he always does
here.
BTW, just because some GUI shows two settings near each other and below
one headline that still doesn't make the implementation of those
identical. As Aandi said, "enabling" is a different matter than those
security settings.
There are special PDF viewers (NOT Adobe Reader) that have their own
means of "comments". So if that is an option for you, you should have a
look at PDF-Xchange _Viewer_ (a free viewer w/ extended capabilities)
or e.g. Foxit Viewer.
-hwh