What do Wicked, Sherlock and West Side Story have in common? They’re all possible because the works they are based on are in the public domain. That means copyright on the original works has expired, so they can be freely adapted. L. Frank Baum’s novel, The Wizard of Oz, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, essentially belong to the public*.
We get a lot of questions about the term ‘public domain.’ It is commonly believed that anything that is publicly available (such as content on the Internet) is in the public domain. In fact, most online content is protected by copyright.
Just because you can read or download a resource, that doesn’t mean you can adapt it, reproduce it, or share copies with others. Before doing so, you must always read the terms of use provided by the copyright owner or determine if a copyright exception (such as Fair Dealing) applies to your intended use.
Watch our short video to learn more:
If you have questions about copyright:
- visit our Copyright subject guide
- learn more about copyright in a custom training session for your team
- book an appointment with a Library Services' team member, or
- reach out to us at Copyright@nshealth.ca.
*Note: Only the original works are in the public domain. Newer adaptations or translations are likely to be copyright protected.
Lana MacEachern
Library Technician
Pictou/Colchester-East Hants/Cumberland Region
Roxanne MacMillan
Librarian Educator
Halifax Infirmary, Central Zone
UPDATED: January 21, 2025. Original Post: March 26, 2018.
A colleague asks for your help reviewing a document. You’re ready to start but realize it’s a PDF. You think to yourself, “How do I make changes or add comments to a PDF?”
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader’s annotations and markup tools! These tools can make reviewing a PDF as easy as editing a Microsoft Word document. You can add comments and suggestions to the PDF document in the places where the changes should be made.
PDF Editing Options in Adobe Acrobat Reader
With the PDF file open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, try these annotation and markup tools:
Make comments
You can add comments using any of these methods:
Right-click the purple speech bubble (D) next to your comment to open either the Comments panel or the Pop-up Note after you’ve created it.
Highlight or strike through specific text
To highlight text:
A strikethrough (horizontal line over text) indicates that text should be removed. To add a strikethrough:
Replace specific text.
The edited text has a line through it (I), just as edits look with ‘Track Changes’ in Microsoft Word. When you hover over the marked-up text, a box appears showing the revised text (J).
There you have it! Once you’ve tried these tools, check out the other features Adobe Reader has available, like:
To learn more, follow this link: Adobe Acrobat - User Manual - Add Comments to PDFs.
NOTE: You cannot edit a PDF in Microsoft Teams. You must first save the PDF file on your computer.
Mark Guzik
Library Technician
Nova Scotia Hospital, Central Zone