Tuesday's Tip - Comments in Adobe Reader

I ran across an issue today with Adobe Reader. I was downloading a newspaper page from Genealogybank.com that included an article on a distant uncle. The actual newspaper page did not show the newspaper title or date, so in order to include all the information I needed to remember I would have had to name the file:

Thomas fruit assoc Daily Inter Ocean Chicago 1_14_1891.pdf

That is one long file name. And yes, I could have shortened some of the terms but I have a horrible memory and I doubt that one day I would remember that DIO stood for Daily Inter Ocean.

I had the bright idea to add meta data to the PDF file, similar to how I add it to my photo files. However, I quickly learned that you can not edit or add meta data to PDF files through Adobe Reader. (This can be done with full Adobe Acrobat). Well, after a little thought I came up with this work around.

Adobe Reader allows you to add comments and highlight documents. This tool allows you to edit documents, or in this example, allows you to add a comment that may help you remember more details about the file.

Quick links for adding comments are circled above.

When you open your PDF file in Adobe Reader you will see two quick links to click for adding comments to the file along the top of the program. You can either add a comment or you can choose to highlight a specific section. Click on the "speech bubble" or Sticky Note icon to add a comment to your page.

When you click on the icon your mouse pointer will turn in to a speech bubble. You can place your Sticky Note anywhere on the page by clicking in the location you want. A yellow and white speech bubble will then appear with a text box. I added the publication data and when and where I found the article. If you find that you no longer need the Sticky Note, simply click on the speech bubble and delete it. If you have multiple notes you can organize them under the comment list on the right-hand side of the screen.

Save your file and the note will now be visible every time you open the file. A great way to share information with fellow researchers. Enjoy!