The Inspect Document feature lets you remove hidden or not-so-evident content that you do not want kept in the document when you distribute it, such as bookmarks, comments, attachments, metadata, etc. You should inspect and de-feature a copy of the original document or use Save As to make a copy if you need to retain the original.
To inspect your PDF document
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Select Document > Inspect Document.
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The categories of sensitive/hidden contents found in the current PDF document appear as active, selected checkmarks. Deselect those you want to retain. The categories are:
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Bookmarks
Bookmarks are links referring to specific pages of a PDF document. You can view all bookmarks of a PDF document in the Bookmarks panel (View > Navigation Panels > Bookmarks). Bookmarks usually indicate the document structure, but may also include sensitive words and phrases.
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Comments
Comments usually refer to text markups and show the opinions of the author or reviewers. View all comments in the Comments panel (View > Navigation Panels > Comments). Comments include notes, markups, drawing objects as well as file and sound attachments.
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Document Attachments
Document-level attachments are files (both PDF and other formats) added to a PDF document as reference or related data. View all attachments in the Attachments panel (View > Navigation Panels > Attachments).
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Deleted content
Deleted parts (pages, text, images, cropped items) are not always actually removed from the PDF, they are just invisible. They could be restored by curious parties.
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Destination
You can place an icon in your PDF file and link it to an external file. When the icon is clicked, the file is opened. You can view destinations in the Destinations panel (View > Navigation Panels > Destinations). In general destination files will not open if the PDF is distributed.
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Embedded thumbnails
Thumbnails are miniature PDF pages often embedded in a PDF document. View page thumbnails in the Pages panel (View > Navigation Panels > Pages).
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Form fields and actions
Form fields in a PDF document 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.
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All JavaScript
JavaScripts are active components that perform commands or actions under specified conditions. If this item is removed, all JavaScripts will turn inactive.
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Links
Links lead to some specific targets or actions. If you remove this item, all link characters in the PDF document disappear.
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Metadata
Metadata include information about the PDF document such as author, subject, keywords, date, copyright information, etc. Metadata can be searched by PDF search utilities. View the PDF metadata in your document in Document Properties (Document > Document Properties).
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Embedded non-display data
This removes internal data not covered by metadata that is not normally visible, but can be viewed with PDF tools. This removes an embedded index, which may contain text that was subsequently redacted.
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Click Remove to delete the content of the selected item(s).
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Select File > Save to save the inspected PDF document. Select Save As… and enter a new filename if you want to keep the original PDF document.
Notes
All selected items will be permanently removed from the PDF document after you save the file. If you close the PDF document file without saving it, all operations are cancelled and you will have to repeat this process.
Document inspection is usually done together with redacting, which is offered in the Enterprise version of PDF Professional. After redaction is performed, an invitation to inspect the document is given. Redacting a document does not redact the content inside an already embedded index. To maintain document security, you should choose to remove embedded non-display data, in order to delete the index. You can re-index the document after redacting it; the removed texts will not enter the new index.
