Your Go-To Guide on How to View All Annotations in PDF in 2024

Part 1. How to View All Annotations In PDF - Afirstsoft PDF

Afirstsoft PDF for Windows and Mac offers you a quick way to view annotations in PDF and then interact with them. Not only that, but you can also customize the appearance of markups by modifying their properties, including color, font, and opacity.

Below are the steps you need to follow while using the app:

1. Download and install the Afirstsoft PDF Windows or Mac
2. Right-click the PDF file on your PC and choose Open With Afirstsoft PDF. Alternatively, open the app, click + or Open in the top right corner of the screen, choose your PDF from where you’ve saved it on your computer, and select Open. If the file is saved in the Afirstsoft PDF cloud, click Files and choose Cloud Files to import from there.

3. After that, click the Chat Bubble icon in the left toolbar to open the Comment List panel and see all the annotations, like highlights, underlines, strikeouts, text boxes, shapes, and others.

4. You can also expand or collapse the markups or use the Search option to find specific ones on the file. To view specific types of annotations, click the Filter icon and choose Highlight, Underline, or Strikethrough. You can also filter the markups based on the author or color.

5. Afirstsoft PDF even allows you to sort all annotations based on page, date, author, and type. If you want to edit or remove the markups, simply right-click them one by one and choose Delete or Edit. Otherwise, simply click an annotation to jump to the page where you or others have added them.

Part 2. How to View All Annotations In PDF - Acrobat Reader

Acrobat Reader has a dedicated Comments panel where you can view all the highlighted text, callouts, shapes, and freehand drawings you or collaborators added to the PDF file.

Here’s how:

1. Go to the Acrobat Reader website and click Download Acrobat Reader to begin the download. Open the Download folder, click the installation or .exe file, and confirm the on-screen prompts to install the app. You can also simply open the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store, use the search option to find Adobe Acrobat Reader, and choose Get or Install.
2. Open Acrobat Reader on your PC, click Your Computer under Other File Storage and choose your PDF. You can also select Your Files, Scans, Shared By You, or Shared by Others under Adobe Cloud Storage to import your file. Otherwise, right-click the file, select Open With, and click Acrobat Reader.
3. Click the Chat Bubble icon in the toolbar to open the Comments pane, where you can view all the highlighted, underlined, crossed-out texts, shapes, and freehand drawings.
4. To check all the annotations by a specific author, time, color, or type, click the Filter icon in the top right corner of the Comments pane and select the option you want. Next, click the three dots in the top right corner of the panel and choose Expand All to go through all the annotations without opening them one by one.
5. You can even click the three dots and choose Sort Comments to sort the markups based on checkmark status, authors, page, date, type, and more. To set the status of comments, simply right-click them, choose Set Status, and select Completed, Accepted, Rejected, or Cancelled.

Part 3. How to View Annotations In PDF - Preview

Preview is a built-in macOS app that you can use to see all the annotations in PDF documents and edit them as well in the Highlights and Notes panels.

Let’s explore the steps below:

1. Open Preview on your Mac, click File, select Open, choose one or more PDF files to import, and click Open again. Alternatively, right-click the file, choose Open With, and select Preview from the list of available apps.
2. Now, click the View option in the top right corner of the screen and choose Highlights and Notes from the menu. This will open up a panel that shows all the markups based on the page where they are added.
3. You can simply go through the annotations in this pane or click them one after another to see where the reviewer has added them.

Part 4. How to View All Annotations In PDF - PDFgear

PDFgear is a completely free app that allows you to locate and read annotations of all sorts on your PDF files across different devices.

Here’s how:

1. Go to the PDFgear webpage and click Free Download on the main screen to download the installation file. After that, open the Download folder on your PC, click the .exe file, and follow the on-screen prompts to confirm and install the app.
2. Right-click the PDF, choose Open With from the menu, and select PDFgear from the list of available applications. You can also open PDFgear on your computer, then select Open File at the top left of the main screen, choose the file with annotations, and click Open to import it.
3. Next, click the Comments icon in the left toolbar. This will open the Comments panel, where markups are organized by page number so you can quickly access and read them.
4. You can also expand or collapse the markups or click them to jump to the page where they are added.

Part 5. View Annotations In PDF - Highlights

Highlights is a note-taking and annotation app for Mac and iOS devices that also lets you view the feedback left on PDFs to fix all problems.  

These are the steps to use Highlights on Mac:

1. Open the Mac App Store, search for Highlights app, and click Get to install it. Open the app, click File, choose Open, select your PDF file, and click Open to import it.
2. Now, click the Notes option in the top right corner of the screen to open the panel. Here, you’ll see all your highlighted, underlined, or crossed-out text, drawings, shapes, and handwritten content.
3. You can sort the annotations based on the color assigned to them or simply click one and go to the location where it is added to the file.

If you use the Highlights mobile app, follow these steps:

1. Download the Highlights app from the App Store and open it.
2. Go to the Browse tab and select On My iPhone, iCloud Drive, or any other storage location.
3. Select the PDF file with annotations and turn your iPad to landscape mode to access the markup panel side-by-side of the file.
4. Tap Notes in the top toolbar to close the PDF view and focus on the annotations added to the file.

Part 6. How to View All Annotations In PDF - Foxit PDF Editor

Another excellent choice for viewing all notes, highlights, or drawings at once in your PDF document is Foxit PDF Editor. Do these steps for this purpose:

1. Go to the Foxit PDF website, click Free Trial, and sign up for a new account to download the .exe file. Then, open the Download folder on your computer and click the installation file to install the app after providing the necessary permission.
2. Right-click the PDF file on your PC, select Open With, and choose Foxit PDF Editor to open it. Otherwise, launch Foxit PDF Editor, click Open File on the main screen, select your PDF, and choose Open. You can also select Shared Files under Cloud Documents to import the PDF.
3. You can expand or collapse the markups, or choose the Show/Hide Comments and choose Open All Popup Notes to see all the annotations along with the feedback attached to them.
4. Foxit PDF Editor also lets you check all the markups based on author, page, type, date, status, checkmark status, and color. You can even use the search option to go to a specific annotated text on the file.

Part 7. View Annotations In PDF - Nitro PDF

If you need a multi-featured PDF editor and a real-time analytics tool that has everything you need to locate, view, and interact with annotations on PDFs, Nitro PDF is one of the obvious choices.

 

Let’s explore the steps of viewing annotations using Nitro PDF:

1. Download the Nitro PDF and run the installation file located in your Downloads folder.
2. Once installed, open NitroPDF on your PC, click Open from the left menu panel, select your file, and click "Open" again. Alternatively, you can right-click the PDF file, choose Open With, and select NitroPDF from the list of options.
3. Click the Comments icon in the sidebar to open the panel where you can access, read, and edit all the annotations. Use the Expand (+) button to open all the markups in the panel, or click one to go to the page where the reviewer has added it.