Docmend
Add to Chrome
How to export or print PDF comments
To print a PDF with its comments, open it in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader and choose Document And Markups in the Print dialog; turn on Print Notes And Pop-ups in Preferences if you also need the note text. On a Mac, tick Show Notes in Preview’s Print dialog. To get the comments out as a list, use Summarize Comments (Acrobat, Foxit PDF Reader) or PDF-XChange Editor’s summary, which can save as text, Rich Text or CSV for Word or Excel. If the same text is also in a Google Doc, the Docmend Chrome extension can bring the PDF’s notes in as Google Docs comments.
A marked-up PDF comes back from a client, an editor or a teacher, and now you need those notes somewhere else: on paper for a meeting, as a checklist in Word, or as rows in a spreadsheet. Below are the methods each PDF app documents in its own help pages, checked on 2026-10-16, plus what to do when the comments refuse to print.
Before you start: are the comments still comments?
Every method here reads the PDF’s comment layer: highlights, sticky notes, strike-outs and so on. If the reviewer used “Print to PDF” to save their copy, those notes are flattened into the page. They still look like notes, but no app can list, export or hide them any more. To check, open the comments list in Acrobat, or in Preview choose View → Highlights and Notes, which shows all the notes in the sidebar. If the list is empty but you can see marks on the page, ask the reviewer to save the file again from their PDF app.
How to print a PDF with the comments showing
Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
Adobe’s Basic PDF printing tasks page (it applies to Acrobat and Reader) and its Print comments page describe the Comments & Forms menu in the Print dialog:
- Document prints the document contents and form fields, but not comments.
- Document And Markups prints document contents, form fields and comments.
- Document And Stamps prints stamps but no other markups.
Pop-up notes are the catch. Adobe says some annotations, such as pop-up notes, don’t print by default so they don’t hide the content behind them. To print the note text on the page:
- Go to Edit → Preferences → Commenting and turn on Print notes and pop-ups.
- Deselect Hide Comment Pop-ups When Comment List Is Open.
- Open the pop-up notes you want to print and move them so they don’t overlap or spill off the page.
- Print with Document And Markups.
On a Mac with Preview
In Preview, choose File → Print, then in the Preview section select Show Notes. Apple’s Preview printing help says this includes any notes that are visible in the PDF’s window, so open the notes you want on paper before you print.
Foxit PDF Reader
The Foxit PDF Reader for Mac manual (version 2026.2) lists these choices under Print What in the Print dialog:
- Document and markups prints the document contents, form fields and annotations. For the notes and pop-ups attached to comments, check Print notes and pop-ups in Commenting Preferences.
- Summarize Comments prints the comments to a separate PDF file named “CommentsSummaryPrint.pdf”.
Comments beside the page or as a list?
Printing on the page keeps each note where the reviewer put it, which is good for layout feedback but crowded with lots of notes. A summary gives you a clean list instead. In Acrobat’s Print dialog, Adobe says Summarize Comments “creates a separate, printable PDF of the comments in a document”; select it, then Yes. The Comments panel’s Options menu also has Print with Comment Summary.
How can I export comments from a PDF file?
As a printable list
In Acrobat, the Comments panel’s Options menu has Create Comment Summary. In Foxit PDF Reader, Summarize Comments produces a separate PDF, as above. In PDF-XChange Editor, click Summarize Comments, set the options, and click OK.
Into Excel
PDF-XChange’s Summarize Comments manual page lists the summary output formats: PDF, Rich Text Format, Plain Text, HTML and CSV. A CSV file opens in Excel or Google Sheets, one comment per row. Two settings on that dialog help: Exclude replies and Include invisible comments.
One gotcha from PDF-XChange’s knowledge base: for highlights, strike-outs and underlines, the marked text isn’t included in the summary by default; only text in the annotation’s pop-up note is. There’s a setting in Commenting Preferences that adds the marked text to the pop-up note automatically.
Into Word
You have two documented routes:
- A text or Rich Text summary. PDF-XChange Editor’s summary can save as Plain Text or Rich Text Format, and both open in Word as a list you can edit.
- Acrobat’s Export to Word. Adobe’s importing and exporting comments page says exporting comments to Word is done with Acrobat Pro on Windows, and the PDF must be a tagged PDF created from that Word document. Choose Export To Word from the comments list options, or in Word select Acrobat Comments → Import Comments From Acrobat. Formatting in comments, such as bold text, is lost.
You may also see Export All To Data File in Acrobat. That creates an FDF or XFDF file containing only the comments, for importing back into the original PDF. You can’t open it on its own as a readable list, so it isn’t a way to get comments into Word or Excel. Adobe also notes that exporting selected comments isn’t available in Acrobat Reader.
Into a Google Doc, attached to the right words
If the reviewed text also lives in a Google Doc (for example, you wrote the proposal in Docs and sent the client a PDF), the Docmend Chrome extension can read the PDF’s highlights, sticky notes and strike-outs and add them to your Doc as comments on the same words. Our guide on turning PDF comments into Google Docs comments walks through it, and which PDF apps’ notes import covers compatibility. This only works when you have the text as a Doc; it doesn’t turn a standalone PDF into a Doc with comments.
From there, Docmend can also save a PDF that keeps the comments, in the margin beside the text or as a numbered list at the end, which is handy when you need a printed copy of the review round.
Why is my PDF not printing with comments?
Work through this list:
- Comments & Forms is set to “Document”. In Acrobat or Reader that option prints no comments. Switch to Document And Markups.
- Pop-up notes don’t print by default. Turn on Print notes and pop-ups in Commenting preferences and open the notes first (Adobe; Foxit has the same preference).
- You’re printing from a web browser. Adobe says Summarize Comments is unavailable when you print from a web browser. Download the PDF and open it in the desktop app.
- In Preview, the notes are closed. Show Notes includes notes that are visible in the window, so open them first.
- The notes were flattened. If the comments list is empty, the reviewer’s “Print to PDF” turned them into part of the page. They’ll print, but no app can list or hide them.
- The PDF restricts printing. Adobe notes that some password-protected PDFs don’t allow printing; ask the author.
Started from a Word file or Google Doc instead?
If the original is a Word document, print or save it with comments from Word itself. In desktop Word, Microsoft’s steps are Review → Show Markup (select only Comments), then File → Print and choose Print Markup under Settings. In Word for the web, File → Export → Download as PDF with comments does it in one step, per Microsoft’s export help. For a Google Doc, see how to save a Google Doc as a PDF with comments.
Which method fits?
| App | Print on the page | List or summary | To Word | To Excel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat | Document And Markups | Summarize Comments; Create Comment Summary | Export To Word (Acrobat Pro, Windows, tagged PDF made from the Word file) | No documented route |
| Adobe Acrobat Reader | Document And Markups | Not stated on Adobe’s pages | No documented route | No documented route |
| Preview (Mac) | Show Notes | Sidebar list (View → Highlights and Notes) | No documented route | No documented route |
| Foxit PDF Reader (Mac manual) | Document and markups | Summarize Comments (PDF) | No documented route | No documented route |
| PDF-XChange Editor | Not covered here | Summarize Comments | Rich Text or Plain Text summary | CSV summary |
| Docmend (text also in a Google Doc) | PDF with comments in the margin | Numbered list at the end | Not covered here | Not covered here |
Common questions
Can I print comments in Adobe Acrobat?
Yes. In the Print dialog, set Comments & Forms to Document And Markups to print comments on the page, or select Summarize Comments for a separate, printable PDF of the comments. To print pop-up note text, turn on Print notes and pop-ups in Commenting preferences first.
Can you save a Word document with comments as a PDF?
Yes. In desktop Word, show the comments with Review, Show Markup, then print with Print Markup selected, choosing a PDF printer. In Word for the web, choose File, Export, Download as PDF with comments. For a Google Doc, see how to save a Google Doc as a PDF with comments.
How do I remove comments from a Word document and save it as a PDF?
In desktop Word, go to Review, then in the Markup group open Display for review and choose No Markup before you print or save. In Word for the web, File, Export, Download as PDF exports without comments.
How do I print a PDF with comments in Microsoft Edge?
Microsoft’s page on the PDF reader in Edge lists viewing, printing and text notes, but doesn’t describe printing a PDF with its notes showing. To print the comments, open the file in Acrobat Reader, Preview or Foxit PDF Reader and use the steps above.
Sources
- Adobe: Basic PDF printing tasks, Acrobat, Reader, checked 2026-10-16
- Adobe: Print comments (Acrobat desktop), checked 2026-10-16
- Adobe: View comments (Comments panel options), checked 2026-10-16
- Adobe: Importing and exporting comments, checked 2026-10-16
- Apple: Print PDFs and images in Preview on Mac, checked 2026-10-16
- Apple: Add notes and speech bubbles to a PDF in Preview on Mac, checked 2026-10-16
- Foxit: Print PDF Files (Foxit PDF Reader for Mac manual, 2026.2), checked 2026-10-16
- PDF-XChange knowledge base: How do I summarize comments?, checked 2026-10-16
- PDF-XChange Editor manual (V6): Summarize Comments, checked 2026-10-16
- Microsoft Support: Print a document in Word, checked 2026-10-16
- Microsoft Support: Export Word document as PDF (Word for the web), checked 2026-10-16
- Microsoft Learn: PDF reader in Microsoft Edge, checked 2026-10-16
- Docmend homepage: PDF notes and PDF export