Tick & Tape User Guide

Before you start

Tick & Tape runs in your web browser. Go to tt.smf916.com in Edge or Chrome, or double-click the Tick-and-Tape.html file if you were given one (it works without an internet connection). Both work the same way. From tt.smf916.com you can also install it as an app (see below). This guide is at tt.smf916.com/guide.html. In the app, click User guide in the top bar, or press ?, to open it in a new tab.

Your PDFs stay on your computer. The app has no server. It reads and saves files inside your browser and does not send them anywhere.

The app opens with no document. Click Open PDF to begin, or Try the sample to practice first. The sample is 30 made-up pages from three made-up clients: financial statements, bank statements, invoices, payroll, tax forms and a general ledger. The first pages already have tick marks, a tape, a tie-out and a review note on them, and four pages are scans, so you can try Make searchable too.

Any current browser works. Chrome and Edge have one extra convenience: they let you choose where each saved file goes.

Install it as an app

From tt.smf916.com, Edge and Chrome can install Tick & Tape as an app. It then has its own window, a Start menu entry and a taskbar button, and works without an internet connection, and so does this guide. Your PDFs still never leave your computer.

1. Go to tt.smf916.com in Edge or Chrome.
2. On the opening screen, click the green Install as an app button. It's also in the About panel (click the Tick & Tape name in the top bar). Or click the install button at the right end of the address bar, or open the browser menu (… in Edge, ⋮ in Chrome) and choose Apps, then Install Tick & Tape.
3. Click Install. The app opens in its own window. Right-click its taskbar button and choose Pin to taskbar to keep it there.

Other browsers show one line on the opening screen instead of the button. In Safari on a Mac, choose File, then Add to Dock. On an iPhone or iPad, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Firefox can't install apps on a computer, so open the page in Chrome or Edge. Click Hide at the end of that line if you don't want it; the offer stays in About.

• Open PDFs from Windows. Right-click a PDF, choose Open with, then Tick & Tape. The first time, Windows asks whether to let it open PDF files. Each time, it opens in a new Tick & Tape window. Several PDFs chosen together open in one window, ready to combine.
• Two documents at once. With one PDF open, click Open (or drop a PDF on the page) and pick another. Tick & Tape asks where to open it: In a new window (already chosen) keeps both open, each in its own window, or tab in a browser. Choose Here, instead of to replace the open one. Drag the windows to the left and right edges of the screen to put them side by side. If you open the same PDF in two windows, the second one says so and offers to close it, because saving in one window can overwrite the other's changes.
• Updates. When a new version is published, a small Updated card appears at the bottom left. Click Reload to switch to it. If you have unsaved changes, the app asks first. If you ignore the card, the new version starts the next time you open the app.

Which version you have

The version is shown on the opening screen and at the bottom of the menu beside Save. You can also click the Tick & Tape name in the top bar (just the tape icon when the window is narrow). That opens a small About panel with the version, who made the app, a link to the app's website (tt.smf916.com), a User guide link, an Install as an app button (or, in browsers that can't be asked, how to install it), and Support the Project with PayPal and Venmo logos beside it. Click a logo to open that page. The links open in a new browser tab. Press Esc or click anywhere else to close it. This guide describes version 1.0.4.

Each saved file records the version that saved it. If you open a file saved by a newer version than your copy, the app tells you and asks before saving over it, because an older copy can drop markup it does not understand. Get the current app before changing that file.

The screen

Click any picture in this guide to see it full size.

1. File buttons, undo and name Open PDF, Save and Close. The small arrow beside Save has more ways to save. Undo and redo come next. The file name shows “unsaved changes” when there is work you have not saved.
2. Preparing or Reviewing, find, OCR, page and zoom The switch says whether you are preparing or reviewing (see Review pass). The magnifier searches the document (Ctrl+F). The OCR button makes scanned pages searchable. It is red while the PDF has scanned pages still to read, green once they have all been read, and plain gray when the PDF has no scanned pages. Type a page number and press Enter to jump there. Zoom out, zoom in, or fit the page width. The theme button ( automatic, light, dark) switches the app between them with each click; automatic follows Windows, and PDF pages always stay white. Just before it, User guide opens this guide in a new tab (or press ? for the keyboard shortcuts). The button at the far right hides and shows the tape panel. It is gold while the tape is showing.
3. Tools Down the left side: select, select text, then the markup tools, then the color button. The color button sets the color, text size and line weight for new markup.
4. Side panel switches At the foot of the strip: Pages, Layers, Bookmarks and Review. Click one to open that panel beside the strip, and click it again to close it. The switch is gold while its panel is showing. The blue number on a thumbnail counts the markup items on that page.
5. The page Your PDF, with your markup drawn on top. When you select something, a small bar appears just above it with its color, Duplicate and Delete.
6. Tape panel The adding machine. Key or pick amounts here, then place the tape on the page.

On half a screen

When the window is narrow, for example snapped to one side of the screen beside Excel or your tax software, the app rearranges itself.

• The top bar shows icons only. Hover over a button for its name. Preparing and Reviewing shorten to Prep and Review.
• The tools stay down the left side, the same as on a full screen. The color button at the foot of the tools shows the current color and opens the colors, text size and line weight.
• The side panel closes. Open it with the switches at the foot of the strip.
• On a narrower window still, such as half of a laptop screen, the tape closes too. Open it with the button or press K. Only one side panel is open at a time at that size, and Redo and the zoom percentage are left out (Ctrl Y still redoes).

Opening a panel makes room for it and the page is refitted, so a panel never sits on top of the page. If you set the zoom yourself, it stays where you put it. Click Fit page width to have the page follow the window again.

Tools and their keys

The tools run down the left side of the window. Each tool has a one-letter key. Press it when you are not typing in a box, and press Esc at any time to go back to the Select tool. Every shortcut, including the tape keys, is on one page under Keyboard shortcuts.

Open, save and close

Open

Click Open PDF, press Ctrl O, or drag a PDF onto the page area. If the PDF was marked up in Tick & Tape before, the markup comes back ready to edit, and a notice tells you how many items were found.

Save

Click Save or press Ctrl S. Unless you have chosen to save over the original, the app saves a copy with (marked) added to the name, for example Sample Ridge Landscaping LLC - P&L and Balance Sheet 2025 (marked).pdf.

• In Chrome and Edge, the first Save of a PDF asks how Save should work: Save a marked copy or Save over the original. Your choice is remembered. Change it any time with Save over the original in the menu beside Save.
• A marked copy asks where to put the file the first time. After that, Save keeps updating that same file. A marked file you open or drag in here again saves back to itself.
• Saving over the original replaces the PDF you opened, and the old version can’t be brought back. If you removed pages, you are asked first. A PDF with a digital signature is never replaced, because saving would break the signature. You get a marked copy instead.
• To save under another name or in another folder, choose Save As… from the menu beside Save, or press Ctrl Shift S. Later saves then go there. If you pick your original in Save As, it is replaced.
• If someone or something else changed the file since you opened or last saved it, Save asks first. Save As… (already chosen) keeps both, Replace puts your version over theirs, and Cancel leaves the file alone. This matters most for files on a shared drive.
• In other browsers each save makes a new copy, usually in your Downloads folder. The first save says so. The shared-link version asks you to confirm first.

The marked copy opens in any PDF reader with all the markup showing. Open it in Tick & Tape again and every tape, note and tick can still be moved or changed.

More ways to save

Click the small arrow beside Save.

• Save is the normal Save. It keeps the markup ready to edit.
• Save As… (Chrome and Edge) asks for a name and folder for the marked copy.
• Save a flattened copy makes the markup, and any form fields, a permanent part of the page and names the file (flattened). Use it for a copy going outside the firm. Review notes are left out. A flattened copy cannot be edited again, so keep the marked copy as your working file.
• Save a copy without review notes appears once the file has review notes. See Review pass.
• Save a redacted copy blacks out the areas marked with the Redact tool and removes the text under them, and names the file (redacted). See Redacting private details.
• Add a markup summary page is covered under Markup summary page.
• Keep a recovery draft is covered under Recovery drafts.
• Save over the original (Chrome and Edge) makes Save replace the PDF you opened instead of making a marked copy.
• Auto-save (Chrome and Edge) saves for you. See below.

Undo keeps working after a save, and your selection and tool stay as they were. Two things can't be undone once saved: pages you removed, and values typed into a form.

If you close a document with changes, you can choose Save, Don’t Save or Cancel.

If a file can't be written, perhaps because it is open in another program, Tick & Tape says so and offers Save As. Your work stays open until it is saved.

Close

Click Close to put the document away and return to the empty screen. If there is unsaved work, the app asks before closing.

Auto-save

In Chrome and Edge, tick Auto-save in the menu beside Save. It stays on until you untick it.

• It saves a few seconds after you stop making changes. The file name at the top says saving… and then saved.
• It starts once you have saved the file yourself. It writes to the same place your own Save does: the marked copy, or the original if you chose to save over it.
• It waits while you are in the middle of something, like writing a note or reading scanned pages.
• Undo still works after it saves, and that includes bringing back a page you removed. Once you close the file, the saved version is what remains.
• Flattened and redacted copies are never saved automatically.
• If the file name says click Save to start auto-save, the browser needs your permission first. Click Save once. This is usual after you reopen a file.
• If someone or something else changes the file, auto-save stops and tells you, so nobody’s work is overwritten without you knowing. Save replaces their version with yours. Save As keeps both.

The tape

The tape works like a ten-key adding machine. Key the number first, then press the key that says what to do with it.

1. Type a title at the top of the tape if you want one.
2. Click the entry box, or press K from anywhere.
3. Key an amount and press + or Enter to add it. Press − to subtract it. Commas appear as you type.
4. To work a line out, key it in one go: 1240 × 0.70 then +. The tape prints the working and adds the answer, 868.00.
5. Press S for a subtotal.
6. Click note on any line to label it.

The picture shows a tape with a multiplied line, a subtraction in red, a subtotal and a new amount being keyed.

Each line is rounded to the cent before it is added, the same as a printing calculator.

Tape keys

Click in the entry box at the bottom of the tape panel, or press K, then:

Fix a line

• Click the amount on a line and retype it.
• Click the + or − at the end of a line to switch it between adding and subtracting.
• Click the × at the far right of a line to remove it.

Name the total and the subtotals

The last row reads TOTAL with a count of the items, for example TOTAL (4 items). To give it a name of your own, click it in the Tape panel, type the name and press Enter.

A Subtotal row is renamed the same way.

• The name prints on the tape, and it is used when you copy the tape for Excel.
• Clear the name to go back to TOTAL with the item count.
• You can rename a tape that is already on the page. Select it first.

Place the tape on the page

Click Place on page, then click the PDF. The top-left corner of the tape lands where you click. Drag the tape to move it. Drag a corner to make it larger or smaller.

Change a tape after it is placed

Click the tape with the Select tool. A note at the top of the Tape panel says Editing tape on page 1 and the lines load into the panel. Anything you change there updates the tape on the page. Double-click a tape to go straight to the entry box.

The buttons under the keypad

• New tape starts a blank tape. Tapes already on the page stay where they are.
• Copy total copies the total so you can paste it into tax software or a workpaper.
• Copy for Excel copies the whole tape as rows. See below.
• Tie out total appears when a placed tape is selected. See Tie-outs.

Paste amounts in from Excel

1. In Excel, select the cells and copy them. Take one column of amounts, or the labels and the amounts beside them.
2. In Tick & Tape, click the tape’s entry box, or press K.
3. Press Ctrl V.

Each row becomes a line on the tape, and its label becomes the line’s note.

Copied from the spreadsheet

	A	B
1	Account	2025
2	Advertising	9,846.31
3	Auto and truck	21,573.88
4	Bank charges	612.45
5	Dues	1,894.27
6	Vendor credit	(250.00)
7	Total	33,676.91

Pasted onto the tape

• Amounts in brackets or with a minus sign are subtracted.
• Heading rows and rows labeled Total or Subtotal are left out. The message at the bottom of the screen says how many.
• An account number or a year beside an amount goes into the note.
• One amount on its own lands in the entry box, ready for + or −.
• If the selection has two columns of amounts, nothing is added. Copy one amount column at a time.
• A tape holds up to 500 lines.

Pasting also works with the page clicked instead of the entry box, as long as you are not typing in a text box.

Copy a tape out to Excel

Click Copy for Excel under the keypad, then click a cell in Excel and paste. You can also select a tape on the page and press Ctrl C.

The first row is the title. Each line follows with its note and amount, and the working sits beside any line that was multiplied out. Subtracted lines are copied as negatives, and the amounts have no commas so the spreadsheet reads them as numbers.

Pick amounts off the page

Instead of keying, click the amounts printed on the PDF.

1. Click Pick from page in the Tape panel, or press G. Every amount the app can read gets a pale blue box.
2. Click an amount to add it to the tape. Hold Shift and click to subtract it.
3. Press Esc when you are finished, then click Place on page.

• With Tick each one switched on, every amount you pick gets a tick in the current color, so you can see what has been added.
• An amount printed as a negative, in brackets or with a minus sign, is subtracted without holding Shift. Shift-click adds it instead.
• The app tries to skip dates and ID numbers. If it boxes something that is not an amount, leave it alone.

Reading amounts off a scan

A scanned page is a picture of a page, so it has no amounts to click. With Pick from page on, drag a box around an amount, or down a whole column of them. The app reads what is in the box and shows it to you before anything goes on the tape.

1. With Pick from page on, drag a box around the amount. Leave a little space around it, and keep other lines out of the box.
2. Check each amount against the page. Click into a row and its amount lights up on the page. Fix any digit that is wrong by typing over it.
3. Press Enter or click Add. Each amount goes on the tape and gets a tick. Subtract puts them on as minus lines.

• Amounts the app was not sure of are marked check. Compare those with the page before adding. Poor scans and faxes get more of them.
• Untick any row you do not want. Brackets and minus signs are read, so a bracketed amount goes on as a minus line.
• The reading happens inside the app on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere. The first box takes a second or two while the reader starts.
• A box drawn on a page with real text simply collects the amounts already in it. Use it to add a whole column in one go.
• Box drawing needs a mouse or a pen. On a touch screen, key the amounts instead.

Making a whole scan searchable

When you open a PDF that is a scan, or has scanned pages in it, a bar at the top offers to make it searchable. At any time you can also click OCR in the top bar, beside the magnifier, or choose Make scanned pages searchable from the menu beside Save.

1. Click Make searchable (or OCR). The app reads each scanned page in turn, which takes a few seconds a page. While it reads, the bar turns solid blue and shows which page it is on, roughly how long is left, and a progress bar beside them that fills as pages are done. You can keep working while it reads, or click Stop.
2. When it finishes, the bar and the OCR button turn green. The bar stays green until you click Save or Dismiss. If a page was hard to read, it turns amber instead. Every amount on the scan can now be clicked in Pick from page, just like a PDF with real text.
3. Save. The text goes into the PDF as an invisible layer behind the scan, so it can be searched and copied in Acrobat, Canopy or any other PDF reader. The page looks exactly as it did.

• Amounts the app was not sure of have an amber box instead of a blue one. Clicking one opens the check card, so you can confirm or correct it before it goes on the tape. The amber marks are kept in the saved file and come back when you reopen it.
• If a page comes out hard to read, the bar says so. A page scanned sideways is the usual cause. Turn it with the page tools and choose Make searchable again. Only the pages that still need it are read.
• Scanned forms such as K-1s are read with their box lines taken out first, so an amount sitting under a box label is found. Ordinary statements are read as they are.
• Pages that already have real text are left alone.

Copy text and find

The words on a page can be selected and copied, and the whole document can be searched. This works on any PDF with real text, and on scans once they have been made searchable (see Making a whole scan searchable), even before you save.

Select and copy text

1. Click Select text in the tools, or press S.
2. Drag across the words you want. They turn blue as you select them.
3. Press Ctrl C, then paste wherever you need it: an email, Lacerte, Excel.

While Select text is on, clicking the page selects text instead of markup. Press V or Esc to go back to moving markup.

Find

1. Press Ctrl F, or click in the top bar. If you have text selected, that text is searched for.
2. Type what you are looking for. Every match is highlighted, and the bar counts them ("2 of 11").
3. Press Enter for the next match and Shift Enter for the one before. The page scrolls to each one.
4. Press Esc to close the bar.

• Capital letters do not matter.
• Commas in numbers do not matter either: 84500 finds 84,500.04.
• When the match is an amount, Add to tape puts it on the tape with a tick, the same as picking it. Ctrl Enter does the same. An amount marked for checking on a scan opens the check card first.

Filling in forms

Some PDFs have fill-in boxes of their own: a client organizer, a W-9, a bank's signature card. When you open one, a note at the top says how many fields it has, and the Fill tool appears in the tools.

1. Click Fill, press F, or click Fill in the form in the note. Every field turns light blue.
2. Click a field and type. Press Tab for the next field and Shift Tab for the one before. Click a check box or radio button to choose it, or pick from a list.
3. Press Esc to leave a field, and Esc again to go back to the Select tool. What you typed stays on the page.
4. Save as usual. The values go into the PDF's own form, so Adobe Acrobat and any other PDF reader show them too.

• Ctrl Z takes back the last field you changed, and a recovery draft keeps what you typed until you save.
• A box with a set number of characters, such as a nine-box EIN, takes no more than that.
• Gray boxes are read-only and cannot be changed.
• Yellow boxes are ones the form works out itself in Adobe Acrobat, such as a total. Tick & Tape does not do the math, so type the figure or check it in Acrobat.
• A flattened copy makes the filled-in fields part of the page, so they cannot be changed. The normal Save keeps them fillable.
• If the PDF has a digital signature, the app asks first: saving any change breaks the signature.
• Forms made for Adobe Acrobat only (XFA forms) cannot be filled in here. Fill them in in Adobe Acrobat Reader, then open that copy here to mark it up.
• Only the fields of the first PDF you opened can be filled in. Fields on pages added from another PDF are left as they are.

Tick marks and stamps

1. Choose a color.
2. Click the arrow beside the tick tool and choose a mark or a stamp.
3. Click on the page. The tool stays on, so you can click down a column.
4. Press Esc when you are finished.

Tick marks: check, cross, footed and dot.

Stamps: ENTERED, REVIEWED, AGREES, NON TAX, PY, N/A and DUPLICATE.

Sign-off: type your initials once, then click Stamp initials + date to place a stamp such as JB 10/10/26. The app remembers your initials on this computer.

Press C to pick up the tick tool again with the last mark you used. Press X for a cross.

Tick-mark legend

A legend says on the workpaper what each mark means, so whoever picks up the file reads the ticks the way you meant them.

1. Click the arrow beside the tick tool and choose Tick-mark legend.
2. Click on the page where the legend should go. It lists each mark with its meaning, in the current color, and is selected so you can drag it into place or resize it from a corner.

The wording comes from Edit legend wording, in the same menu. It has a box for each tick mark and each stamp. Type what the mark means at your firm, or leave a box blank to leave that mark off. Click Done. The wording is remembered on this computer and used for every legend you place from then on.

• A legend keeps the wording it was placed with. Changing the wording later does not change legends already on a workpaper.
• To reword one legend, select it and click Legend wording… in the small bar above it, or double-click it. Ctrl Z undoes the change. Use for new legends makes that wording the one used from then on.
• The house conventions are the firm's to set. Agree them once and type them into each computer's legend wording.

Notes, highlights and shapes

Text box

Press T, click where the note should start, and type. Drag instead of clicking if you want to set the width. Click away or press Esc to finish. Double-click a note to edit it.

The color button sets the text size, bold, and a white background behind the text: the one at the foot of the tools for new notes, or the one on the small bar above a note you have selected. The white background helps when a note sits on top of print.

Highlight and shapes

Choose the tool and drag. The highlighter stays on so you can mark several things in a row. While it is on, the color buttons show highlighter colors. For shapes and the pen, the Line box sets the weight.

Select, move and change

Pictures and screenshots

A screenshot can go straight onto a page: a snip of a property tax bill beside the deduction it supports, a bank balance next to the reconciliation, or a line from a portal that has no PDF of its own.

1. Take the screenshot so that it is copied. On Windows, press Windows Shift S and drag around what you want. On a Mac, press ⌘ Ctrl Shift 4.
2. Scroll Tick & Tape to the page it belongs on and press Ctrl V. It lands in the middle of what is in view, at the size it was on your screen, and is selected.
3. Drag it into place. Drag a corner to make it bigger or smaller; it keeps its shape.

You can also drag a picture file (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP or BMP) from a folder onto the page, where it lands under the pointer, or click at the end of the tools and choose one or more files.

• Pictures sit on their own Pictures layer, so they can be hidden or locked like any other markup. A reviewer’s pictures go on the Review layer.
• They are saved into the PDF as ordinary images, so other PDF readers show them too, and a flattened copy keeps them. Reopened here, they can still be moved, resized or deleted.
• Cells copied from Excel still go on the tape, even though Excel also copies a picture of them. To put a picture of the cells on the page, snip them with the screenshot keys instead.
• A very large picture is reduced to 2,400 pixels on its longest side, and a large photo is stored as a JPEG, to keep the file a sensible size. Each picture adds roughly its own size to the PDF; a typical snip adds well under half a megabyte.
• A file with pictures in it is marked as needing version 0.33 or later. An older copy of the app warns before saving over it, because it would drop the pictures.

Redacting private details

Before a client file goes outside the firm, you may need to black out a Social Security number, a bank account number or a date of birth. A black box drawn with the shape tools only covers the number: it is still in the file, and anyone can copy it or search for it. The Redact tool takes it out.

1. Click in the tools, or press B.
2. Drag a box over each thing to remove. The box shows see-through black with a red edge, so you can check what it covers. The tool stays on for the next one; press Esc when you are done.
3. Click the small arrow beside Save and choose Save a redacted copy. The app names the pages it will change and asks you to confirm.
4. Choose where to save. The copy is named (redacted), for example Smith 2025 W-2s (redacted).pdf.

In the redacted copy:

• Each marked area is solid black, and the text under it is gone from the file. Searching for it or copying it finds nothing.
• Each page with a black box becomes a picture of itself. The rest of that page's text can still be searched and copied, but its links are gone, and it makes the file a little larger.
• Pages with nothing marked are left as they were. The markup and any form fields are part of the page, as in a flattened copy, and review notes are left out.

Your working file is not changed. The boxes stay in it as markup you can move, resize or delete, and an ordinary Save or a flattened copy does not black anything out. Keep the working file inside the firm, since the private details are still in it.

Tie-outs

A tie-out is a pair of linked markers. It shows that a number on one page carries to a number somewhere else, and it checks that the two agree.

1. Press I or click the tie-out tool.
2. Click the amount the number comes from. A marker with a reference letter appears beside it.
3. Go to the place the number lands, on any page, and click that amount.

The first reference is A, the next is B, and so on. Here, net income on the profit and loss statement is tied to net income in members’ equity on the balance sheet.

• If the amounts agree, the second marker shows the amount and a green check.
• If they differ, the marker turns red and shows off by and the difference.
• Signs are ignored, because statements often print credits in brackets. (1,200.00) and 1,200.00 count as agreeing.
• If you click a spot with no amount, the marker is placed without a comparison.

Tie out a tape total

Select a placed tape and click Tie out total in the Tape panel, then click where the total goes. If you change the tape later, the tie-out checks itself again.

Change, follow or remove a tie-out

Select a marker. A Tie-out A… button appears on the small bar above it. Click it to:

• change the reference, for example to TB-1
• add a short note to the first marker, such as Sch B, line 1
• go to the other marker
• remove the tie-out, which removes both markers

Double-click a marker to jump to its partner. In the saved PDF, each marker is a link to the other one, so a reviewer can follow it in a PDF reader.

A marker can be dragged like anything else. Move it if it covers a neighboring number.

Pages

Click Pages at the foot of the tools to open the Pages panel. Click a thumbnail to go to that page. Hold Ctrl or Shift and click to select several.

Rotate	Turn the selected pages left or right. Markup turns with the page.
Delete	Remove the selected pages and the markup on them. Ctrl Z brings them back.
Extract	Save the selected pages as a new PDF. See below.
Add pages	Add one or more other PDFs at the end. Each added file gets a bookmark. You can also drop PDFs onto the Pages panel.
Reorder	Drag a thumbnail up or down. A selected group moves together.

Page changes are written into the copy you save. Deleted pages are taken out of that copy completely. They are not just hidden.

A password-protected or locked PDF cannot be added. If an added PDF has fillable form fields, they may stop being fillable in the combined file.

Combining several PDFs into one

To put a set of files together, such as twelve monthly bank statements, choose them all at once. Click Open PDF and select several PDFs (hold Ctrl and click each one), or drop them all on the app. Before anything opens, a list shows the files in the order they will be combined:

• If every file name has a date or a month in it, such as Bank - January 2025 or Statement 2025-01, the files start oldest first. Otherwise they are in name order. The Sort buttons switch between the two.
• Drag a file up or down to move it, or use its arrows. The × leaves a file out.
• Type a name for the combined PDF. The app suggests one from what the file names have in common.

Click Combine and open. Each file gets a bookmark, so you can jump to it. The combined PDF is new, so click Save to keep it. A PDF that needs a password or is locked can't be combined; the list names it as left out.

Extracting pages to a new PDF

Select the pages you want in the Pages panel, then click Extract. With no pages selected, the page you are on is used. The app asks two things each time:

• Markup: keep the markup on those pages, or save the pages without it. Nothing is picked for you. Review notes are always left out, as with the other copies the app saves.
• Remove them from this file: tick this to take the pages out of the file you are working on as well. Ctrl Z brings them back. It can't be ticked when every page is selected.

The new file is named after the pages, for example Client (pages 4-6).pdf. Markup in it can still be edited when you open it here. Bookmarks that point at the extracted pages come along, and so does text read off scanned pages. Turned pages stay turned. The file you are working on is not changed unless you ticked Remove.

Bookmarks

Click Bookmarks at the foot of the tools. Go to a page, click Bookmark this page, type a name and press Enter.

• Click a bookmark to jump to its page.
• The pencil renames it. The × removes it.
• Bookmarks already in the PDF show up here too.

Bookmarks are saved into the PDF, so they appear in the bookmarks panel of any PDF reader. They follow their pages when you reorder.

Layers

All markup sits on six layers: Tapes, Text, Ticks & shapes, Pictures, Tie-outs and Review. The Layers panel lists everything on each one. The Review layer holds whatever a reviewer adds.

• hides or shows a layer. Hide them all to see the clean page.
• locks a layer so nothing on it can be selected or moved by accident.
• Each layer is a card in its own color, and each item shows an icon of its kind in the item's own color, with its page number at the right.
• Identical items on the same page share one row, such as Check × 7. Click an item to select it and jump to it; click a shared row to select all of them at once.
• A tie-out whose two amounts don't agree shows off by in red.

The layers are saved into the PDF as real PDF layers, named Tick & Tape: Tapes and so on. A PDF reader with a layers panel, such as Acrobat, can switch them on and off. The Pictures layer is only added to a file that has a picture in it.

Review pass

The review pass lets a second person mark up the same file without touching the preparer’s work. The reviewer raises numbered points, the preparer answers them, and the reviewer clears them. The file keeps track of what is still open.

The switch

The switch in the top bar is set to Preparing or Reviewing, and it decides whose marks you can change. Review notes are listed in the Review panel, from the foot of the tools.

Type your initials in the Review panel before you switch to Reviewing. They go on every note you raise. While you are reviewing, the switch shows Reviewing in teal and the tools have a teal edge.

Tie-outs can be followed from either side of the switch. Double-click a marker to jump to its partner.

Raise a point

1. Switch to Reviewing.
2. Press N, or click Add review note in the Review panel.
3. Click the page where the point belongs and type it. Press Esc or click away when you are finished.

Each note gets a number (R1, R2 and so on), your initials and the date, and starts as Open. Drag a note to move it. Drag a side handle to make it wider or narrower.

Ticks, stamps, highlights and tapes you add while reviewing also go on the Review layer.

Answer a point

1. Open the file. A notice says how many review notes are not cleared. Click Show review notes to see the list.
2. Stay in Preparing. Click a note on the page or in the list.
3. Type your reply and click Mark answered.

While preparing, you cannot move, change or delete a review note.

Clear a point

Switch back to Reviewing. Click the note, read the reply, and click Clear.

• Reopen puts a note back to Open and keeps the reply.
• Delete removes the note.

The Review panel counts the notes by status, and the number on its switch is how many are not cleared. Click a note in the list to jump to it.

On the page, an open note is teal, an answered note is amber and a cleared note is gray.

Sign-off

If you place a REVIEWED stamp while any note is not cleared, the app asks first.

What gets saved

• Review notes are saved onto the page, so they show in any PDF reader. They sit on their own PDF layer, Tick & Tape: Review, which can be switched off in a reader that has a layers panel.
• The markup summary page lists every review note with its status and reply, and says which ones are not cleared.
• Save a copy without review notes, under the arrow beside Save, makes a clean copy named (final). It is still editable, and it keeps the reviewer’s ticks and stamps. Your working file keeps its notes. The app warns you if any note is not cleared.
• Save a flattened copy leaves review notes out as well.

Passing the file back and forth

One person works on the file at a time. Save it, hand it over on the shared drive, and the other person opens it. If two people mark up separate copies at the same time, one set of changes is lost.

Markup summary page

Click the arrow beside Save and tick Add a markup summary page. Every save then adds a last page that lists the markup in the file with page numbers:

• each tape, with its amounts and total
• each tie-out, with the amount and whether it agrees
• each review note, with its status and reply
• each note
• counts of stamps, tick marks and other markup

Each line shows the mark itself, drawn as it looks on the page and in its own color: the stamp, the check mark, the tie-out letter, the review note number. Marks of the same kind but a different color get their own line, so red check marks and green check marks are counted apart. If the file has a tick-mark legend on it, its wording appears under each mark it explains.

The page also shows when the file was saved and the initials from your sign-off stamp. It is rebuilt on every save, so you only ever have one. The setting stays on until you untick it.

Seeing the summary in Tick & Tape

The summary is a real last page in any other PDF reader. In Tick & Tape it stays out of your page list, so it can't be marked up or moved. To read it here, use either of these:

• When you open a file that has a summary, the note at the top says so. Click View summary.
• Click the arrow beside Save and choose View the markup summary.

You see the summary from the last save. Changes you haven't saved yet are not on it.

Recovery drafts

While you work, the app keeps a draft of your unsaved markup in this browser. The file name shows “unsaved, draft kept”. If the browser closes or the computer restarts before you save, open the same PDF again and the app offers to bring the work back.

• Only the markup is kept. The PDF itself is never stored.
• A draft is removed when you save, when you choose Discard it, or after 30 days.
• A draft lives in one browser on one computer. It will not be on another computer.
• A draft is locked with a key made from the PDF itself, so only someone who opens that same PDF can read it. Other web pages on the computer cannot.
• If the draft used pages added from other PDFs, the app asks you to choose those files again.

To switch drafts off, click the arrow beside Save and untick Keep a recovery draft. That also deletes any drafts already kept. Consider switching it off on a computer that several people share under one login.

Good to know

• Covering is not redacting. A white box or a stamp over a number hides it on screen and on paper, but the number is still inside the file. To remove confidential information, use the Redact tool and save a redacted copy (see Redacting private details).
• Scanned PDFs open and can be marked up like any other. To pick amounts off a scan, make it searchable or drag a box around them (see Pick amounts off the page). Handwriting cannot be read.
• Locked PDFs open for viewing, with a notice that markup cannot be saved. Print the PDF to a new PDF and open that copy.
• Only Tick & Tape can edit the markup again, and only from the marked copy. If another program rewrites the file, for example by combining or optimizing it, the markup may no longer be editable.
• Keep everyone on the same version of the app. The app warns when a file was saved by a newer version than the copy you are using. Early copies that show no version number give no warning and can drop newer markup, such as review notes, when they save. Replace them.
• Notes use standard Western characters. Emoji and unusual symbols are dropped.
• Long PDFs are fine. Pages are drawn as you scroll to them.

Keyboard shortcuts

Everything on one page. On a Mac, use ⌘ wherever this guide says Ctrl. Tool keys work when you are not typing in a box; tape keys work in the tape's entry box.

Ctrl V decides for itself: cells copied from Excel go on the tape, a screenshot or picture goes on the page, and markup copied here is pasted as markup.

More on each tape key, with examples, is under Tape keys.

If something looks wrong

Pick from page shows no boxes.

The page is a scan, so there are no amounts to click yet. Choose Make scanned pages searchable from the menu beside Save, or drag a box around an amount to read just that one.

A box on a scan reads the wrong amount or none.

Draw the box again a little bigger than the amount, with no other lines inside it, and zoom in first if the print is small. Or type the right amount over the wrong one before adding.

A notice says the PDF is locked.

Whoever made the PDF blocked changes. Print it to a new PDF and open that copy.

I cannot select the words on a page.

Press S for the Select text tool. If the page is a scan, make it searchable first: choose Make scanned pages searchable from the menu beside Save.

I cannot select something on the page.

Press V for the Select tool. Then check the Preparing / Reviewing switch in the top bar: in Preparing, review marks are locked, and in Reviewing, the preparer’s markup is locked. Then check the Layers panel: the layer may be locked or hidden. If nothing in the file can be selected, you may have opened a flattened copy. Open the marked copy.

Save did not ask where to put the file.

It is in your Downloads folder. Chrome and Edge ask for a location. Other browsers do not.

I closed the browser without saving.

On the same computer and in the same browser, open the same PDF again and choose Restore.

A tie-out says “off by”.

The two amounts differ by the figure shown. If you clicked the wrong number, select the marker, click the Tie-out button on the small bar above it, remove the tie-out and make it again.

A marker or tape covers something I need to read.

Drag it out of the way with the Select tool, or hide its layer for a moment.