How to review all the annotations in a PDF on Mac
Every mark in the document, in one list — so you can read your own pass before anyone else does.
Marking up a long document takes an afternoon. Rereading what you marked takes five minutes, and it is the step that separates a useful review from a confusing one.
The annotations list is free and always will be. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing is watermarked.
Opening it
The annotations pane is the fourth of the five in the sidebar (⌘+1 shows and hides it). It lists every mark in the document in page order — highlights, underlines, notes, drawings, shapes, text boxes and stamps — with the text of each note and the page it sits on.
Click any entry to jump to the mark on the page.
Why the list is worth using
| Problem it catches | How |
|---|---|
| Comments that made sense at the time | Reading twenty notes in sequence exposes the one that says “as above” about something you later moved. |
| Marks you meant to delete | The half-finished thought from the first pass is obvious in a list and invisible while scrolling. |
| Contradictions | Two notes on pages forty pages apart asking for opposite changes are easy to make and hard to spot any other way. |
| Marks with no explanation | A struck-through paragraph with nothing beside it will be read as a demand. The list shows you which marks have words attached. |
Read the list top to bottom once before returning a document. It takes a couple of minutes and it is the difference between a reviewer whose comments get actioned and one whose comments get queried.
Receiving a marked-up document
The same list works in the other direction. When a document comes back covered in someone else's marks, the annotations pane turns it into a to-do list you can work through in order rather than a scroll hunt.
If what you actually need to know is how the document itself changed — not what was commented on — Compare Versions is the better tool: it lines the version you sent against the version that came back and shows the differences in the text and visually.
Clearing a document down
When a review is finished and the marks have served their purpose, you have three options, and they are not the same:
- Delete the annotations to return the document to its unmarked state.
- Flatten to fix them permanently into the page, so nobody downstream can move or remove them. The pages become pictures, so their text stops being selectable.
- Sanitize to clear the document's own details along with comments and marks before sharing it outside the organisation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I see all the comments in a PDF on a Mac?
Open the sidebar with ⌘+1 and choose the annotations pane. It lists every mark in the document in page order, and clicking one jumps to it.
Does the list include drawings and shapes?
Yes — highlights, underlines, notes, drawings, shapes, text boxes and stamps all appear.
Is the annotations list free?
Yes, along with the rest of the sidebar. Making the marks is Premium; seeing them is not.
How do I remove every annotation at once?
Delete them from the list, or sanitize the document, which clears comments and marks along with its own details before sharing.
What is the difference between reviewing annotations and comparing versions?
The annotations list shows what people said about the document. Compare Versions shows how the document itself changed between two copies.