4 Free and Easy Methods to Add Comments to a PDF [Online or Offline]

When you are reading a document or browsing work materials, adding comments will greatly improve your concentration and reading efficiency. We can create comments by highlighting, underlining, text notes, sticky note, text replacement, and other annotation methods. This allows you to quickly locate the next time you browse. And don’t worry that these comments will affect your reading. They are usually hidden on the right side of the document and only appear when you click. However, due to the non-editable particularity of a PDF, adding comments to a PDF becomes a very difficult operation. By reading this guide, you will get three methods to add comments in a PDF. This information will be all you want to know.

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Method 1. How to Add Comments to a PDF Online with PDFgear

Usually, we can’t make any changes to a PDF file. However, PDFgear makes this operation possible. PDFgear is one of the best free PDF editors that can be used to add comments to PDFs with complete functions and convenience. It will only take up a small part of your storage space. Of course, you can also choose to edit it directly online. And to facilitate business collaborations, PDF pages rearranging is also supported.

PDFgear is completely free and safe. And it has no login, no watermark, and can be cross-platform. PDFgear can make it easy for you to add comments in a PDF in 3 steps.

Step 1. Upload the PDF Document

To add comments to a PDF, navigate to PDFgear PDF editor.

Step 2. Add Comments to the PDF

After you’ve imported the PDF file, go to the right side of the screen and select the “Add Comment” icon. To add a comment, click anywhere in the document.

Once the comment icon appears in your document, you can double-click it to add text on the right panel. After entering the text, click the Post button to finish adding.

Step 3. Download the PDF Document with Comments

Move sight to the upper right corner to find the “Download” button, and click the “Download” button in the upper right corner to save it to your device.

Method 2. How to Add Comments to a PDF Offline with PDFgear Desktop

If you like the PDF annotating features that PDFgear.com has to offer, you definitely should not miss out on the PDF commenter software PDFgear Desktop. As an offline solution to commenting and annotating PDF documents, PDFgear Desktop is the software version of the PDFgear website, and one of the best free PDF annotators, it allows you to add comments of different fonts and colors to your PDF documents without an internet connection.

Now learn from the steps below to add comments to PDF offline using PDFgear Desktop. To get started, hit the download button to get PDFgear Desktop on your Windows or Mac computer.

Step 1. Launch PDFgear Desktop on your Windows 10, Windows 11, or Mac computer.

Step 2. Hit the red Open File button above to add a PDF document that you intend to comment into PDFgear Desktop.

Step 3. Hit the Annotate button from the menubar above, and hit the Note button underneath.

Step 4. From the PDF previewing screen below, click on anywhere you want to insert a comment, and the comment box will be automatically generated.

Step 5. Input your comments into the note box which you can find by the side of the PDF preview screen.

Method 3. How to Add Comments to a PDF Offline with Adobe Acrobat

In addition to PDFgear allowing you to add comments for free, Adobe Acrobat also allows you to add comments to PDF documents at will. Adobe Acrobat is a popular PDF reader program for PC. It allows us to edit, change, delete, reorder and rotate PDF pages directly in PDF files.

Aside from PDF commenting, Adobe Acrobat has many other pro-level PDF features like converting HTML to PDF, but it’s a pricy product for sure.

Step 1. Open Adobe Acrobat Software Program

Download and install the Adobe Acrobat computer program to start Adobe Acrobat.

Step 2. Import the PDF Document

Click “My Computer”-“Browse”, and select the PDF document to be uploaded to add and import.

Step 3. Add Comments to the PDF

Touch “Comment” on the right to make the comment ribbon appear. You can add and edit any comments to the entire PDF.

Step 4. Save the Modified PDF Document

You can download and save the commented document by the following steps: File > Save/Save as > Choose a different folder > Save.

Method 4. How to Insert Comments to a PDF Online in Google Drive

Google Drive is a popular online file storage service and you can use it to add comments to PDFs as well. Users can share files or folders with anyone, and choose whether the shared object can view, edit, or comment on the files. Every Google account provides 15GB of free storage space in Google Drive. Start taking advantage of this cloud storage by uploading files and folders from your desktop or mobile device.

Step 1. Enter Google Drive

Log in to the website with your Google account.

Step 2. Open the PDF

Select “New” > “File Upload” on the right to add PDF documents, and you can press “Ctrl” to select multiple files to import. After uploading, you will be notified in the lower right corner.

Step 3. Add Comments to the PDF

A “+” sign at the top right is the button to add comments. After clicking, you can add comments to the PDF document at will.

Step 4. Download the PDF

Click the download button to get the PDF document with comments.

How to Add Comments to PDF: FAQs

How to Allow Commenting in a PDF?

To allow commenting in a PDF, choose a PDF to upload > File > Save as > Rename the PDF to reserve the original document > Click “Add Comment” on the right to bring up the toolbox.

How to Add Comments to a Protected PDF?

To add comments to a protected PDF, open the PDF > Enter the password > Enter the editing process > Add comments and annotations > Save to the specified folder.

Or you can remove the password first by following these steps: Go to Adobe Acrobat, click Protect in Tool, select Encrypt and finally click Remove Security to add comments.

How to Copy and Paste Comments in PDF?

To copy and paste comments in PDF, select the comment > Ctrl+C > Open the target document > Ctrl+V

Tips: the pasted comment will be automatically positioned in the center of the target document page, so you need to manually adjust the position. Also, not all comments can be pasted, such as Strikethrough Text, Insertion Text, and Underline Text.

How To Delete Comment From a PDF？

You can change the added comment in the right panel that opens by clicking the Comments icon. When the panel is open, select any comment to edit. You can also delete unnecessary comments, or set a status on comments that have been added. When you’re done editing the commentary, click Save Document again.

Why Can’t I Add Sticky Notes to PDF?

That you can’t add sticky notes to a PDF may be because the PDF document is encrypted and set permissions, you can go to Tool > Protect to check.

How to Enable Commenting in Adobe Reader DC?

Open a PDF with Adobe Reader DC, and click the right toolbar in the “Comment” to open the comment mode. The three dots on the right side of the tab can expand or collapse all comments.

How to Enable Commenting in Adobe Reader 9?

To enable commenting in Adobe Reader 9, open adobe reader 9 and import documents > view document permissions in Document-Security-Show Security Properties > Tool > Comment & Markups.

How to Fix “Your File Contains Annotations that Prevent the File from being Sent for Commenting”?

Encountering your file contains annotations that prevent the file from being sent for commenting issues. In this case, you have to get access authority to this PDF from the original author.

Conclusion

Compared with Adobe Acrobat and Google Drive, PDFgear only takes up very small storage space, and you can use it directly online without downloading it. Moreover, it is completely free, and there will be no restrictions on the free use of space.