| This post was kindly contributed by Key Happenings at support.sas.com - go there to comment and to read the full post. |
I just learned today that you can add comments to your saved copies of the SAS 9.2 documentation. How cool is that! I’m not sure how I missed this news; I don’t want you to miss it too.
Starting with SAS 9.2, the PDF versions of SAS documentation allow you to use the Comment & Markup feature of Adobe Reader to make notes in a local copy of the document. This sure beats keeping a printed copy on your desk with sticky notes and pencil scrawls all over it.
For those of you who have never used the comment feature, I have provided short instructions below. I verified these instructions using Adobe Reader 9.
- Find the document that you need. (I suggest using the documentation by product listing at support.sas.com/documentation to easily locate available PDF files.)
- Select the PDF link for your selected document and save the file to your local file system.
- Open the saved PDF document. Find a spot to add a comment, a sticky, or to highlight a few words.
- Select Tools from the Comment & Markup pull-down.
- Use one of the markup elements to add something to your document. I chose to add a sticky note that included a URL for more information about the topic. The image below shows the document text with the sticky note indicator where I placed it.
You can locate all of your comments when you return to the document by selecting the Comment element in the toolbar. Adobe Reader provides a complete set of tools for managing and using the elements that you added to the document. The next image shows part of the entry for my sticky note. 
When I click the yellow note icon, I am taken to the location in the document that contains my note. How cool is that!
UPDATED October 27, 2010: I just learned about a paper written by Roger Muller and Joshua Horstman and presented at MWSUG 2010. The paper is Custom Google Searches, PDF Sticky Notes, and Other Tips for Organizing and Accessing SAS Help Resources. A section in the paper titled Working with the PDF Manuals addresses this topic in more detail.
| This post was kindly contributed by Key Happenings at support.sas.com - go there to comment and to read the full post. |