Do the highlights and comments I added stay on the pages when I extract them?

Why comments travel and bookmarks do not

In a PDF, a highlight, a sticky note and an underline are all annotations tied to a specific page and stored with that page's data. When the tool copies the page into a new file, it takes what belongs to the page, so the annotations arrive intact and in place. Bookmarks, on the other hand, are a file-wide list pointing at various pages, and form fields are defined at document level, so neither moves into the new file.

A real example: reviewing a contract with a partner

You read a 15-page supply contract, highlighted the clauses that need discussion on pages 6 and 9, and left a note on page 9: price excludes shipping. You want to send your partner just those two pages with your remarks.

1. Save your annotations into the file first in your PDF reader, since some apps hold them until you press save.
2. Open the saved file in Split PDF.
3. Choose “Extract to one PDF” and type 6, 9.
4. Press “Split and download” to get a two-page file with the highlights and note in place.
5. Open the output and check the note shows before you send it.

The flip side: comments go with you even when you would rather they did not

Because annotations travel automatically, every internal note on the page reaches the recipient. A note such as do not go below this price, left on a quote page you send to a customer, is an expensive mistake. The tool has no option to strip annotations, so delete them from the original in your PDF reader, or save a clean copy, and extract from that.

What travels and what does not, in short

• Travels: page content, size, rotation, highlights, notes, drawn shapes and web links.
• Does not travel: bookmarks, fillable form fields, and the title, author and other document metadata.
• No longer valid: a digital signature, because the output is a new document.