Comment properties and review history in PDF by Zaweba
Change a comment's colour, fill, opacity, line width, author and subject, and see in the review history who set which status on it and when.
Every comment in a PDF carries more than its words. It has a colour, perhaps a fill and an opacity, a line width for shapes, an author and a subject. Over the course of a review it may also gather a history of status changes as people accept, reject or complete it. PDF by Zaweba gives you control of the first and a clear view of the second.
Comment > Properties changes colour, fill, opacity, line width, author and subject, with a properties bar under the Comments list. Comment > Review history shows who set which status and when.
Why properties matter
Properties are how you make comments readable. A yellow highlight on a yellow page disappears; changing its colour fixes that. A solid fill hides the text underneath; lowering the opacity lets it show through. A thin line on a busy drawing vanishes; a wider one stays visible.
They also carry meaning. Many teams use colour to sort comments: red for errors, blue for questions, green for approvals. The Comments panel can then sort and filter by colour, turning a colour scheme into an instant filter.
Author and subject
The author is the name shown on a comment. Setting it correctly is important in shared reviews, so everyone knows who to ask about a remark. You can change the author of individual comments through properties, which helps when comments were made under the wrong name.
The subject is a short label for what the comment is about. It can be useful in a long review to group comments by topic, such as "pricing" or "legal wording".
The properties bar
The properties bar under the Comments list lets you adjust a selected comment without opening a separate window. Pick a comment in the list, change its colour or opacity in the bar and see the result on the page. For a run of small adjustments, it is much quicker than opening the full properties each time.
Review history
Status tells you where a comment stands now. Review history tells you how it got there. Open Comment > Review history and you see who set which status and when.
That record matters in formal reviews. If a comment was accepted, then rejected, then accepted again, the history shows each step and who took it. When questions come up later, such as who approved a change in the contract, the answer is in the document itself.
How these fit with the rest of commenting
Properties work on every kind of comment: highlights, notes, text boxes, shapes, stamps and drawings. Review history works with the status you set in the Comments panel. Pop-ups show a comment's words and replies beside it on the page.
Together they cover what a careful review needs: clear marks, the right names, the words in context and a record of decisions.
Agree a colour scheme at the start of a team review and stick to it. Set the name that appears on your comments before you begin, so you do not need to fix authors later. Use statuses rather than deleting comments, so the history shows what was decided.
Names and colours used carelessly
Changing another person's author name to your own is a mistake that muddles accountability. Fix names only when they are genuinely wrong.
Relying on colour alone is another. Some readers cannot easily tell certain colours apart, so pair colour with status or a subject for anything that matters.
Small as these tools are, they are what make a review in PDF by Zaweba clear to read and easy to account for afterwards.
