Comments and review
A comment is a small note icon on the page with text, an author, a date, and optional replies. Comments are for questions and suggestions that shouldn't change how the page looks.
Add a comment
- Choose Add a comment in the floating tools, Add comment in Edit mode, Add comments in All tools, or Add comment at the top of the Comments panel.
- Click the spot on the page the comment is about.
- Type the comment in the dialog and click Post, or press Return.
The comment appears as a 23 × 23 pt note icon in the current color, and the Comments panel opens. If you post an empty comment, nothing is added.
To change a comment's text, double-click its icon with Select, or select it and click Edit text.
The Comments panel
Open Comments from the navigation rail. It lists every comment and every other mark in the document (highlights, drawings, text, stamps and so on) in page order. Each card shows:
- the author's initial on the annotation's color, the author's name and the type of mark
- the page number and when it was created
- the text, if the mark has any
- replies, indented under the text
- Resolved, if it has been resolved
Click a card to go to that mark and select it. The selected card also shows:
- Reply…: type a reply and press Return to add it.
- Resolve or Reopen: marks the thread as done, or opens it again.
- Delete: removes the mark and all its replies.
Click Hide resolved to leave resolved marks out of the list, and Show resolved to bring them back. Hiding them only changes the list. Resolved marks are still shown on the page and included when you export.
All of these actions can be undone with ⌘Z.
Authors
Marks and replies you make are attributed to You. Marks from a .pdfspace workspace
someone else saved keep their original author and date.
Comments in exported PDFs
When you export a PDF, each comment is drawn on the
page as a note icon and also added as a standard PDF text annotation (a "sticky
note"). Its replies are appended to the note text as Author: reply, and the author is
set as the note's creator. Other PDF readers, such as Preview and Acrobat, show these as
ordinary comments.
Resolved status isn't part of a PDF text annotation, so it isn't exported. Keep the
.pdfspace workspace to keep the full review state.
Reviewing with other people
Refr has no accounts or cloud sync. To review with someone else:
- Save an editable workspace (⌘S) and send them the
.pdfspacefile. - They open it in Refr or PdfSpace, add comments and replies, and save it again.
- Open the returned workspace.
A workspace contains the full original PDF, so share it only with people who may see the document. See Privacy and limitations.