When participants open the FDF setup file attached to their invitation e-mail, a copy of the PDF review document is opened in their browser. In addition to the basic Adobe Reader tool set displayed in the browser window, you also get the Review and Comment Tasks button, that allows you to annotate the PDF in your browser. The following list gives you some pointers on making a review cycle run smoothly, whether you’re the initiator or a participant in a browser-based review:

• You must use Acrobat 6 Professional or Standard versions to participate in a browser-based review.
• You must open the FDF file attached to your invitation e-mail in order to participate in a browser-based review.
• To annotate a PDF file, use the tools and commands on the Review and Comment Tasks button because the menu commands in this case are browser-specific. The Review and Comment Tasks button also contains commands for displaying the Commenting and Advanced Commenting toolbars. Like all tool bars in Acrobat, these can be displayed as either floating or docked.
• In order to be able to see other participant’s comments, your Reviewing preferences must match those of the review initiator. If you can’t see other people’s comments, request the correct server settings from the review initiator and make sure you have access to that location.
• To view updated annotations from other participants or to enable others to view your recent contributions, choose Send and Receive Comments on the Review and Comment Tasks pop-up menu.
• When you’re finished adding annotations to a PDF review document, you can change the status of your review to completed to communicate that fact to the review initiator and other participants. You complete a review by choosing Review and Comment➪Set Review Status➪Completed from the Review and Comment Tasks button pop-up menu.
• If you’d like to perform your review in Acrobat rather than your Web browser, click the Save and Work Offline button on the Commenting toolbar.
• If at anytime you’ve stopped adding annotations to a PDF review document and want to continue the process, either reopen the FDF attachment in your original e-mail invitation or, if you’ve saved the document to work offline, open it in Acrobat and choose File➪Go Back Online. This command reopens the PDF document in your browser and uploads your comments.
• Use the Review Tracker to manage the annotations you collect in a review cycle, whether it is an e-mail-based review or a browser-based review. See the next section for details.

How to initiate a browser-based review?

After setting up your Reviewing preferences, you’re ready to upload the PDF review file and specify review participants. Keep in mind that though the PDF review file and the FDF setup file do not have to be in the same location, participants must have access to both files on a network in order to review the PDF document. Also note that you should wait until you’ve uploaded a PDF for review to make any initial comments. If you don’t, any comments you make to a PDF file prior to uploading will be embedded in the PDF document and you won’t be able to further edit them. To upload your PDF document and initiate a browser-based review, follow these steps:

1. Open the PDF review document in Acrobat and choose File➪Upload for Browser-Based Review.
2. In the Upload for Review dialog box that appears, click My Network and locate the folder in which you want to store the PDF review file. Make sure that all participants have access to this network location.
3. Click the Upload button to copy the PDF review document. When your PDF file finishes uploading, the Start Browser-Based Review dialog box appears,
4. In the Start Browser-Based Review dialog box, enter participant addresses in the To, Cc, or Bcc text boxes.
5. Edit the default text in the Subject and Message to Reviewers text boxes and click the Send button. If your default e-mail client displays an alert dialog box asking you to verify sending the e-mail, click the Send button again to send an e-mail message to participants that specifies the location of the PDF review file.

If the PDF file you want to have reviewed already exists on a server, you can initiate a browser-based review as well as invite new participants to the review cycle by first navigating to the file and opening it in your browser. The Review and Comment Tasks button appears in your browser window; from its pop-up menu, choose Invite Others to Review This Document to open the Start Browser-Based Review dialog box, where you enter participant addresses before clicking the Send button. You can also use this same command in Acrobat 6 during an e-mail-based review to invite more participants to review your PDF document.

Looking at the Reviewing preferences for a browser-based review

In order to initiate a browser-based review, you have to first specify the type of server you’re using and the location of the FDF setup file where all the participant comments are stored. Having this file accessible to all browser-based review participants is what allows everyone to view the ongoing review cycle in their Web browsers. You specify these settings in the Preferences dialog box in Acrobat 6. Choose Edit➪Preferences or press Ctrl+K, and then click Reviewing in the list box on the left side of the Preferences dialog box to display the Reviewing options. The following list describes the options found in the Reviewing options of the Preferences dialog box:

• Server Type: Use the Server Type drop-down list to define what type of server you’re using to store the FDF setup file containing browser-based review annotations. Select the Database option if there is a database application server setup on your company intranet. Select the Network Folder option to upload your FDF setup file to a shared folder on your network. Select the Web Discussions option if you have access to a Microsoft Discussions server. Note that this type of server needs to be configured in Internet Explorer as well. Select the WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) option, which is a special kind of server that allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files remotely, if you have access to a WebDAV server.
• Server Settings: Fill in the necessary directory path or (HTTP type) addresses in the Server Settings text box, which activates when you make a selection on the Server Type drop-down list.
• browse: If you select Network Folder as your Server Type, the Browse button activates so that you can locate the shared folder you want to use in a browser-based review. Remember that all participants need access to this folder in order to participate in the review.
• Reset Automatic How To Pages: Click this button to ensure that the How To window will display topics that are appropriate to the type of review cycle you define. If all this sounds like Greek to you, it’s best to get these settings from your systems administrator. Otherwise, fill in the appropriate information and click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.

If you choose WebDAV or have access to your own or someone else’s Web server, you need to add that server as one of your network places in Windows XP in order to upload your PDF using the Upload for Browser-Based Review command within Acrobat. To do so, choose Start➪My Network Places, and then click Add a Network Place in the Network Tasks area. Follow the prompts in the Add Network Place Wizard and then click the Finish button. Don’t be afraid to seek help in completing this wizard from your systems administrator if necessary.

Setting up a browser-based review

In a browser-based review, you can either upload a PDF document to a server or work with an existing document on a server. Like an e-mail-based review, the review initiator sends an e-mail to participants with an attached FDF (Form Data Format) setup file that contains configuration settings for importing reviewer comments into the review PDF file. Reviewers must open this FDF attachment, as opposed to simply opening the PDF document posted on the server, in order to participate in a browser-based review. When a reviewer opens the FDF attachment, a copy of the PDF file is opened in their Web browser.

Participants can then make annotations to the PDF document using tools on the Review and Comment toolbar that appears in their browser when the PDF file is opened. All participant comments are stored in the FDF setup file and imported into the shared PDF document for reviewing by everyone participating in the review cycle. Note that participants cannot edit or delete one another’s comments, though they can reply to them, as you see in the next sections.