Stupid Simple Mac Tips #28 – Soothing Your PDF Annotation Pain
This edition of Stupid Simple Mac Tips will prove that annotating PDFs is painless—once you know what you’re doing.
How to Annotate on a PDF
The most basic way to annotate a PDF is by navigating to the ‘Preview’ app on your Menu (or Dock). It’s the icon that resembles photos under a magnifying lens. This handy tool has already been preinstalled, completely free.
Just follow these steps:
- Upon right-clicking on the ‘Preview’ app, you’ll see the files you recently accessed with ‘Preview.’
- Select your desired file you want. But what if you wish to access a new PDF? Opening the file will also open in ‘Preview’ automatically (if this fails, then right-click on the PDF. This action will provide more options, and you can select ‘Preview.’).
- There are a few different annotation options. Go to the menu at the top of your screen and select ‘Tools,’> ‘Annotate.’
- In the ‘Annotate’ menu, the top option will say ‘Highlight Text.’ Select this option.
- ‘Highlight Text” will add the annotation toolbar to your ‘Preview’ window while allowing you to highlight text in the PDF.
- Highlight a section of your text, then right-click your highlight to see the option to change the highlight colors or ‘Add Note.’ Select ‘Add Note’ to annotate that section.
There are other options for annotation, but these tips should have you well on your way to successfully annotating on PDFs.
