Easy PDF Preview and Annotation with Egnyte

In every industry people work with PDF documents in one way or another. With about 2.5 trillion PDFs floating around in the world today (according to Adobe), the PDF has proven to be easy to use and economical in terms of document sharing and consumption. 

However, despite their popularity, distributed teams that need to collaborate on PDF files often find it difficult to do so without adding unnecessary friction to their workflows.  This is due to the inherent limitations of PDFs:

1. Editing is not easy, unless you have access to a quality editor
2. Signing a PDF is a manual scanning process unless you have third party eSignature software
3. Lack of version control and tracking history
4. Large file sizes translate to low upload/download speeds

To help companies tackle these challenges, Egnyte has created powerful tools that make viewing and editing PDFs much easier and more cost effective than ever before. 

Previewing PDFs

Egnyte’s embedded PDF viewer enables users to preview files in thumbnail and outline views to quickly navigate or bookmark a page or section of a page for future reference. The tool also allows for zoom, rotation, and page deletion.

Embedded search enables users to find relevant information instantly, without having to search through the entire PDF document manually, saving a significant amount of time and effort.

Marking Up PDFs

Once a PDF is opened in Egnyte’s Web UI, users will see an option called "Edit" in the native toolbar. This provides a menu of markup options that are similar to common Desktop PDF applications like Adobe Acrobat. 

Users have access to 30+ annotation tools. They can highlight important information, underline relevant notes, strikethrough errors and add arrows or other shapes to draw attention to specific areas on the PDF. As these annotations are native to the PDF file format, users will see the same markups even when they access the file in other editing tools like Adobe Acrobat, FoxIt, and Bluebeam.

For example, assume a client needs to provide feedback on a brochure created by a design agency. With Egnyte, the client can highlight or add comments directly on the PDF brochure suggesting a change in the design or copy. The designer can then quickly view and work on the client’s feedback in real-time eliminating the need for multiple emails or time-consuming calls. 

Whereas in the AEC Industry, project teams can create and annotate PDF files with project updates or markups on construction drawings. This saves a good amount of time and effort for AEC professionals as they can review and edit documents swiftly without navigating through multiple tools. 

Adding e-Signatures

E-Signatures are an essential feature to authenticate important documents like agreements or contracts. 

To add an eSignature in Egnyte, click on the "Insert" menu option in the toolbar. The "+Signature" button opens a new window to capture the signature and the user can either input their signature or upload it to sign in the location as prescribed in the document. The tool also saves the user’s signature of choice to simplify future document signings.

Using Forms

Forms are commonly used across industries such as AEC, FinServ, Healthcare, and Legal to capture and collect information such as construction application data, patient forms, financial statements and signatures on legal agreements. 

Egnyte’s forms menu enables users to create a form directly in the PDF document. Using the "Add text" option in the toolbar, users can add and edit by right-clicking on the text and selecting the "edit" button to make the requisite changes.

To add input fields next to the text, select the fields menu, and choose the type of field needed such as text box, check box, radio button or signature. 

Fields can be placed in a desired location, edited, resized, arranged or deleted as needed. Field properties (font size, background color etc.) can be modified based on the type of form field. Once the form is created, the user can preview it and save it for future use.

Contact Egnyte to gain access to the PDF Viewer and Annotation tool and start collaborating on PDF documents without the need to switch between various tools or platforms.

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