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Circulate for Windows

Circulate for Windows is a PDF editor for your own computer. It opens and saves PDFs on your disk, works without an internet connection, and can also take part in your firm's reviews.

1. Install it

  1. Go to the download page and download Circulate for Windows.
  2. Run the installer and follow its steps, then start Circulate. An empty window opens, with the ribbon at the top.

2. The free trial

Everything works for a 30-day trial, with no key and no card. While it runs, the window says how many days are left, for example "Circulate Editor trial: 12 days left.", with Buy Circulate Editor beside it.

When the trial ends, the markup tools turn off until you enter a licence key. Opening, printing and saving copies keep working, so nothing you made in the trial is trapped. To enter your key, open File, then Licence, paste it into Licence key and choose Check key. The key is checked on your computer, without going online. A licence you buy is never remotely deactivated: see our licence promise.

3. Open a PDF

  1. On the Home tab, choose Open PDF, and pick a file. You can also drop PDFs on the window, or right-click a PDF in Windows and use Open with. The drawing opens, with its pages in the Sheets panel on the left.

Markups already in the file, from Acrobat or Bluebeam, are shown too.

4. Mark it up, offline

The Markup tab has the tools you know, with the same names as in Bluebeam and Acrobat: Callout, Note, Text Box, Highlight, Cloud, Rectangle, Pen, Stamp, and the rest. Measure has Length, Area and Count, once you set the page's scale with Calibrate.

  1. Choose a tool, or press its key (C for Cloud; see keyboard shortcuts).
  2. Draw on the page. For a Cloud, Polygon or Area, click each corner. To finish, bring the pointer back to the first corner: it snaps onto it, like an endpoint snap in CAD, and a click there closes the shape. Or double-click.
  3. Choose Select (or press V) to stop drawing and pick markups.

Undo and Redo are in the title bar, on the Markup tab and on the Home tab, or press Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.

5. Save

  1. Choose Save on the Home tab, or press Ctrl+S. The status bar at the bottom says "Saving" with the file's name, then "Saved at" and the time, for example "Saved at 11:33 AM". Your markups are now in the PDF, as standard PDF annotations.
  2. To keep the original as it is, choose Save As… (Ctrl+Shift+S) and pick a new name; the window then edits the new file.

The window's name shows when there are changes not saved yet. If you close the window while a save is running, Circulate waits for the save to finish before it closes. If Circulate is ever closed before you save, the next time you open the same file it offers your markups back.

To share a copy without changing your file, open File, then Save a copy: Save a copy with markups… keeps the markups editable in Acrobat or Bluebeam, and Save flattened copy… draws them into the page for printing. Print (Ctrl+P) prints the drawing with its markups.

6. Join your firm's reviews

If your firm or your city uses Circulate for reviews, the same window can join them. Reviews never need a licence key.

  1. Open File, then Review servers.
  2. Type the Server address your firm gave you (for the Circulate cloud, https://getcirculate.ca) and choose Add server. The server appears in the list, with Open, Sign in and Remove.
  3. Choose Sign in. Your web browser opens the server's sign-in page. Sign in there, as in the reviewer's guide; Circulate then opens a review window, signed in.
  4. Next time, choose Open to go straight to your projects.

A review window works exactly as Circulate does in the browser. From a review in your browser, Open in Circulate for Windows brings it here.

7. Updates

Open File, then About & updates, and choose Check for updates. When one is ready, choose Restart to update. Updates install only when you choose to, and only those your licence covers; the version you have keeps working without them. If your organisation manages updates for you, this page says so.