How to Check a PDF Before You Send It

Almost every PDF incident — the leaked name, the blank form, the wrong version — would have been caught by two minutes of checking. Here is what to look at.

Content

1. 1Check the page count matches what you intend to send.
2. 2Page through the whole document rather than the first page.
3. 3Confirm the pages are in the right order.
4. 4Check nothing internal survived — draft watermarks, working columns, reviewer comments.
5. 5Confirm this is the final version, not the draft with a similar filename.

Anything you removed

1. 1Copy text from every redacted area — nothing should come back.
2. 2Search the document for the name or number you redacted.
3. 3Check headers and footers, which repeat on every page and are routinely missed.
4. 4Check the bookmarks, which can restate a removed section.

Hidden data

• Open document properties and read the Author, Title and Subject fields.
• Check for annotations and comments.
• Check for embedded attachments.
• Check the filename itself does not disclose something.

Rendering

1. 1Check the Fonts tab — everything should be embedded.
2. 2Open the file in a second reader, ideally a browser.
3. 3Check it on a phone if the recipient may read it there.
4. 4Print one page if it will be printed.

Delivery

• Check the file size against the recipient's likely limit.
• Give the file a name that identifies it: subject, party and date.
• Check the recipient address character by character.
• Say in the message what is attached and what you expect back.

When it matters most

Run the full list on anything going outside your organisation, anything with legal effect, anything you have redacted, and anything being published. For an internal draft to a colleague, the content checks are enough.

Build the checks into how you work

A checklist you have to remember is a checklist you will skip on the day you are busy. The checks that survive are the ones attached to a step you already take: renaming the file, attaching it, writing the covering message.

Two habits carry most of the value. Always open the finished file from your downloads folder before attaching it — that one action catches wrong versions, blank forms and failed exports. And always write the covering message before attaching, so you are forced to describe what you are sending and notice when the description does not match the file.

For teams, agree a short standard: naming convention, metadata cleared, second reader check on anything external. Written down once, it stops being something each person decides individually under time pressure.