The Inspect Document feature in PDF Plus can help you comb out any hidden or not-so-evident content that you don’t want to leave in the document, such as bookmarks, comments, attachments, metadata, etc. It’s a good idea to inspect your document before releasing it.

 

How to inspect your PDF document:

  1. Choose Document > Inspect Document.
  2. The sensitive/hidden content in your PDF will be highlighted and checked by category. You can uncheck those you don’t want to remove. The categories include:
    • Bookmarks
      Bookmarks are links that lead to specific pages of a PDF document. You can view all bookmarks of a PDF document in the Bookmark panel (View > Navigation Panels > Bookmarks). Bookmarks usually contain representational text that shows structural content as well as sensitive words and phrases.
    • Comments
      Comments are usually with text markups that show the opinions of the author or reviewers. You can view all comments in the Comment panel (View > Navigation Panels > Comments). Comments includes all types like the Comment, Text Markup, and Drawing tools as well as file and sound attachments.
    • Document Attachments
      Document-level attachments are those files (both PDF and other format) added to a PDF as reference or related data. You can view all document-level attachments in the Attachment panel (View > Navigation Panels > Attachments).
    • Deleted content
      Deleted contents (pages, text, images, cropped items) are not always actually removed from the PDF, they just aren’t visible. They can be recovered by curious parties.
    • Embedded indexes
      An embedded search index can reduce the search time for the PDF. However, it possibly contains sensitive words and phrases indexed from the document content. Removing an embedded search index will decrease file size but slows down your search time.
    • Embedded thumbnails
      Thumbnails are shrunken PDF pages often embedded in a PDF. You can view page thumbnails in the Thumbnail panel (View > Navigation Panels > Thumbnails).
    • Form fields and actions
      Form fields in a PDF are dynamic controls that contain interactive features. If this item is removed, all form fields are flattened and cannot be edited, filled in, or signed any more.
    • All JavaScripts
      JavaScripts are interactive components that lead to some commands or actions under specific conditions. If this item is removed, all JavaScripts will turn inactive.
    • Links
      Links will lead to some specific targets or actions. If you remove this item, all link characters in the PDF will disappear.
    • Metadata
      Metadata includes information about the PDF, such as the author, subject, keywords, date, copyright information, etc. Metadata can be searched by PDF search utilities. You can view the PDF metadata in your document in Document Properties (Document > Document Properties).
  3. Click Remove to delete the content of the selected item(s).
  4. Choose File > Save to save the PDF. Select Save As and enter a new filename if you want to keep the original PDF.

Note: All selected items will be permanently removed from the PDF after you save the file. If you close the PDF file without saving it, all operations are cancelled and you will have to repeat this process again.

Inspect Document