# Using Offline Annotation

Offline Annotation is a feature that helps reviewers to be productive while offline, using familiar editing tools. You can export any document, along with any annotations it has, and review offline in your preferred PDF editor. You can reply to exported annotations and create new annotations. When finished, you then import the annotated rendition into Vault. This feature must be <a href="/en/gr/63315/#enabling_offline_annotation">enabled by an Admin.</a>


Multiple users can review and annotate offline concurrently: when they import, Vault adds each new annotation to the document as if the users had annotated through the UI. If any mistake happens, Vault helps users to recover easily with the **Undo Last Import** option.

## Related Permissions {#permissions}

To access the **Export Annotations** and **Import Annotations** menu options, you must have a role on the document that includes the _Annotate_ permission. To export, you must also have a security profile that grants that _Document: Download Rendition_ permission.

## How to Export for Offline Annotation

To make offline annotations, choose **Export Annotations** from the document's **Actions** menu. If you export and annotate the viewable rendition, Vault will not be able to import the offline annotations.

The *Export Annotations* action is available even when there are no annotations on the document. This allows you to export an unannotated PDF for offline review and annotation and then import those annotations into Vault.

The document must have a viewable rendition in order to export for annotation.

## About Exported Annotations

The **Export Annotations** option will export all annotations, including anchors, page-level annotations, and resolved annotations. Vault does not include document-level comments in the export.

If some annotations are hidden by <a href="/en/gr/9777/#filters_menu">filters</a>
, select **Apply Filters** in the dialog to exclude filtered-out annotations. Annotations hidden manually are not excluded.

## How to Import Offline Annotations

To import a PDF with offline annotations:

  1. From the **Actions** menu, choose **Import Annotations**.
  2. Click **Choose** and select the file that you previously downloaded and annotated.
  3. Click **OK** to upload the file.

## About Imported Annotations

When importing offline annotations, Vault ignores:

* Edits to existing comments
* Replies to line and anchor annotations
* Deleted annotations

Each line you add in Adobe  Acrobat  or Reader  creates its own annotation, which Vault preserves on import. If you add several lines in Adobe  Acrobat , such as to create an X pattern, Vault imports them as multiple overlapping line annotations.

## How to Undo Annotation Imports

To undo an import that had mistakes, choose **Undo Last Import** from the **Actions** menu.

Note that this option only appears if the last import created new annotations or replies. It only removes annotations created by the latest import.

## Supported Offline Actions

The following table details how Vault handles various offline annotation actions:

<table class="wbord">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>Offline Action</strong>
    </td>
    <td>
      <strong>Vault Action</strong>
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Replying to a new or exported annotation
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as a reply
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Creating a new annotation
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as a new annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Setting new annotations to Accepted, Canceled, Completed, or Rejected status
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports new annotation and assigns Resolved status
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing a PDF with annotations made by multiple different users
    </td>
    <td>
      Attributes all new annotations to the user who imports them
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing drawing markup cloud annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as an image annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing drawing markup polygon annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as a line annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing drawing markup connected line annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as a line annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing drawing markup free form annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as an image annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing attached file annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as an image annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing stamp tool annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as an image annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing recorded audio annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as an image annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing sticky comment annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as a sticky comment annotation and reverts any formatting to Vault sticky comment formatting
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Importing insert text at cursor annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Imports as an image annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Creating new links
    </td>
    <td>
      Not supported; does not import link
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Revising exported annotations (type, tags, color, etc.)
    </td>
    <td>
      Not supported; does not update existing annotations
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Deleting exported annotations
    </td>
    <td>
      Not supported; does not delete existing annotations
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Changing exported annotation to Accepted, Canceled, Completed, or Rejected status
    </td>
    <td>
      Not supported; does not update existing annotations
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Annotating across versions (exporting from v0.1 and importing to v0.2)
    </td>
    <td>
      Not supported; no action
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      "Add Checkmark" selected in PDF annotation
    </td>
    <td>
      Not supported; ignores option on imported annotation
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

If Vault fails to import one or more offline annotations, the notification bar will show the number of errors.

### Notes

The export feature allows you to annotate offline and import those annotations for an existing document. Vault does not support uploading the exported file as a new document.

Vault cannot distinguish between new and pre-existing Adobe Acrobat  annotations, and treats all annotations as new upon upload. We recommend that you do not upload PDF source files with existing Adobe Acrobat annotations, especially if you intend to import and export annotations on that document.

If any of the note annotations in Vault have a _Resolved_ status when a user performs **Export Annotations**, the _Resolved_ notes receive a status of _None_. 

When a user performs **Export Annotations** and changes the status of the exported notes to one of the standard Acrobat statuses and then imports the PDF back into Vault, Vault does not apply that status change to the imported notes. 

When a user imports a new note created in Acrobat with an Acrobat status, Vault creates the imported note with a status of _Resolved_.

## Supported PDF Editors

Once you've downloaded a PDF through the **Export Annotations** action, you can view and annotate with the following applications

  * Adobe  Reader : All versions currently supported by Adobe 
  * Adobe  Acrobat : All versions currently supported by Adobe 

You may be able to view and add annotations using other applications, but Vault cannot re-import those annotations.

[1]: #permissions