[Simon]

The other day I got a manuscript back from a co-author and he told me his comments and changes were in the PDF file. I opened it up with Leopard's Preview.app. I saw he had struck out words in a few locations and when I clicked on those areas a comment bar on the left would pop up and display an always empty red box. I wasn't able to find any comments, edits, or additions.

So I transfered the PDF to a windows box with Acrobat and opened it there. Suddenly I see many comments, annotations, etc. in addition to the few things Preview had shown me.

I went back to Preview and tried to find settings to display these things. But no dice and I haven't been able to view the comments or annotations in Preview yet.

So I wonder, does Preview do these things at all? Is there any way to see these changes in Preview? I really don't want to have to install Acrobat on the Mac.

[ibook_steve]

Tools > Mark up or Annotate

The comment tracking is not even close to what you can do in Acrobat, though. What's wrong with installing Acrobat for just this task?

Steve

[Simon]

Thanks for your reply, Steve.

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Tools > Mark up or Annotate

I know about those. They let me make edits. But that's not what I'm looking for. I want to view somebody else's edits.

The comment tracking is not even close to what you can do in Acrobat, though. What's wrong with installing Acrobat for just this task?

I saw an installation on a colleague's Mac. It's a huge package (bloatware) with an installer that craps all over the disk. Unless I absolutely have to, I won't be putting it on my own Mac.

[OreoCookie]

We usually use a combination of paper annotations (which are scanned to pdf) and comments in the LaTeX source instead. Isn't that an option in your case?

[Simon]

We usually use comments in the LaTeX source too, but in this case we're dealing with an author who says he "can't understand LaTeX".

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Simon 

We usually use comments in the LaTeX source too, but in this case we're dealing with an author who says he "can't understand LaTeX".

Ugh. Not sure if it is worse than co-workers who insist on `their' (very much outdated) style of doing LaTeX.

Regarding your specific problem, I think you have little choice but installing bloatware on your Mac. Or to use printouts that are scanned (which I actually prefer). Obviously that's only an option if your coworkers know how to easily scan documents as pdf (our new copier can do that, greatest thing since sliced bread ).

[JKT]

Won't Adobe Reader permit you to view and edit comments etc. if the author of the PDF has set the permissions to allow you to do so? Since version 9.0, it isn't too bad an app on the Mac these days.

[JKT]

Iirc, it also installs as a single app package (and internet plug-in if you want it), so it is much less bloatware than Acrobat.

[P]

These days it installs Adobe updater, though. If you're worried about the bloat, install it on a separate account.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by P 

If you're worried about the bloat, install it on a separate account.

So are you saying the installer will not crap outside of ~/. I'd be rather surprised.

[P]

Originally Posted by Simon 

So are you saying the installer will not crap outside of ~/. I'd be rather surprised.

Main reason to do that is that it can be easier to see what has changed by checking the uid. Anything that has your new temporary uid comes from the installer. Yes, it can be hidden if the installer insists on elevating to superuser privileges, but few installers actually need to do that. Regular admin privileges is enough to install an app. In this particular case, all the Adobe files have my uid as the owner, so you should be able to use this method to trace its droppings.

[Simon]

Oh yeah, sure. But I think I can find what was installed easier than that. Unfortunately, the Adobe Reader installer does not show which files will be installed like every proper OS X installer should (the menu item is there and the panel opens but it displays nothing). Exactly what I'd expect from Adobe.

Anyway, here's the plan.

sudo du -ah / > ~/Desktop/fsdump.tmp
install app
sudo du -ah / > ~/Desktop/fsdump2.tmp
diff ~/Desktop/fsdump.tmp ~/Desktop/fsdump2.tmp > ~/Desktop/diff_results.txt

[Simon]

Does anybody here have an idea if Preview will see stuff like this added in its SL version?

[P]

Originally Posted by Simon 

Oh yeah, sure. But I think I can find what was installed easier than that. Unfortunately, the Adobe Reader installer does not show which files will be installed like every proper OS X installer should (the menu item is there and the panel opens but it displays nothing). Exactly what I'd expect from Adobe.

That's actually not uncommon in third-party installers. Doesn't defend it, but I've seen it before.

I also must have missed the part where a single application needed an installer at all, but I guess that's just me.

Originally Posted by Simon 

Anyway, here's the plan.

sudo du -ah / > ~/Desktop/fsdump.tmp
install app
sudo du -ah / > ~/Desktop/fsdump2.tmp
diff ~/Desktop/fsdump.tmp ~/Desktop/fsdump2.tmp > ~/Desktop/diff_results.txt

You think it's easier to dump the entire file directory to a file and diff them? Well, either way will work, so do it your way if you like.

You can also open the log window in the installer and set it to show everything (not just errors). That usually works, even if the file listing fails.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by P 

I also must have missed the part where a single application needed an installer at all, but I guess that's just me.

Don't worry, you're not alone.

Anyway, although Reader is actually a single app bundle, it is surprising to see in how many places the installer leaves droppings. A summary:
/Applications/Adobe/Acrobat.com.app
/Applications/Adobe Reader 9/Adobe Reader.app
/Applications/Utilities/Adobe AIR Application Installer.app
/Applications/Utilities/Adobe AIR Uninstaller.app
/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Utilities
/Library/Application Support/Adobe
/Library/Frameworks/Adobe AIR.framework
/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.acrobat.pdfviewer.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.PDFAdminSettings.plist
/Library/Receipts/AdbeRdr910_en_US_i386.pkg
/private/tmp/AdobePatch
/Users/Shared/Library/Application Support/Adobe
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe
~/Library/Application Support:Adobe:Acrobat
~/Library/Caches/Acrobat
~/Library/Caches/Cleanup At Startup/Adobe
~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.air.ApplicationInstaller
~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.Reader
~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.acrobat.90.sh.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Reader_x86_9.0.plist
~/Library/Receipts/com.adobe.Reader

I espeically like the idea that next to an Adobe folder in ~/Library/Applications Support/ they also felt the urge to create a separate folder ~/Library/Application Support:Adobe:Acrobat/

[P]

Originally Posted by Simon 

I espeically like the idea that next to an Adobe folder in ~/Library/Applications Support/ they also felt the urge to create a separate folder ~/Library/Application Support:Adobe:Acrobat/

Don't they test their stuff at all?

(For those that don't know: ":" was the path separator - character that you put in between each directory in the full file path - in Classic Mac OS and still is in APIs derived from it. "/" is the common UNIX path separator. The two are translated back and forth by the system for compatibility reasons, and if you mess up where your strings come from, you might end up with something like that.)

[Simon]

It's amazing that that's what comes out of such a huge software developer like Adobe.

Well, not that surprising maybe if you consider what comes form MS...