Identity always username in Preview annotations

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Level 1

4 points

Identity always username in Preview annotations

Hi,

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro running Catalina 10.15.6. In the past, I've been able to annotate PDFs in Preview and the Preferences for the identity worked fine. I'm reviewing documents so I want this hidden or e.g. Anonymous.

The only thing Preview does now is show my username, regardless of the Preview settings. I have to send the PDF to someone who has Adobe Acrobat Pro which can strip the annotator's identity out. I've tried opening it in Acrobat after Preview and reopening in Preview but my identity remains.

Any suggestions for how to make the annotation identity controls behave? I do NOT want to strip the annotations, just the identity.

Thanks,

Mark in Atlanta

Posted on Oct 10, 2020 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

125,560 points

Oct 11, 2020 3:50 PM in response to mqbenedict

What I have personally observed in Preview is to set its Preferences : PDF : Name field to something bogus (e.g. Mr. Anonymous, NoneType, etc.), and also select Annotations: [√] Add name to annotations. When I do this, add Annotations, and review these in Preview's Inspector Annotations panel, I see the following, and not my personal name.

This works for me on Mojave 10.14.6 (18G6032), and Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2).

Also, I noticed that Preview does not insert personal name information as Author metadata on the PDF either, and that carries over when opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

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Identity always username in Preview annotations

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