Participant

Answered

Adobe Reader X- can't select text

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
July 29, 2011
6 replies
232456 views

Hello everyone,

This should be an easy one- all I want to do is select some text/charts from a PDF, and then copy and paste into Word/Paint... I used to be able to do this (with Adobe Reader 9 I think it was), but since I upgraded to X I can't even select text, even if the Select Tool is on. Can anyone help??

Thanks!

General troubleshooting

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer C_F_McBlob

I went to the link you recommend, and the oldest ver available seems to be 10.1.4... anyone know where I can find an old enough version, apparently at least as old as 9.5?

OldVersion.com has Reader going back to version 3 for Mac and version 1 for Windows

O

oltexan

Participant

This may or may not help. I found that in my scanner you have to save a PDF as a SEARCHABLE PDF. If I did so I could select and copy the resulting text from the PDF. I suspect that if you save a scan as a plain PDF that it saves it like picture from which you cannot select the text.

J

JohnAR

Participant

As stated, it might be a scanned copy, Not all PDFs are created by following general norms, creating a PDF file from scratch, or converting an existing text document into PDF format. Sometimes, scanned images are bundled and merged into a PDF file. Such a file can be described as a scanned PDF. They differ from standard PDFs in that editing them is usually not possible.

If so, use OCR to convert it into a regular file. Here's how:

Visit PDF24 or a similar site that uses OCR to recognize the text in files.
Click on the Choose files button.
Upload the scanned PDF file.
Allow the tool to complete its processing.
Download the converted version of the PDF file.

This has worked for me whenevr the provider of the original PDF wasn't aware of the difference between scanned PDF's and "regular" PDF copies.

HTH, JohnR

fredj94786598

Participant

I understand the Pain with Adobe - somewhere in the Past I was able to Copy/Paste any small Text - but now I have given up, is tooo complicated- if possible at all - -I just did go to my Linux PC and in no Time I could Copy/Paste [i.e. to Notepad]

>>meine Guete!!!!! - where have I landed!?? maybe when MS and others join the Linux People - -so, we weit and hope the all speak one Language[I'm still learning also - -]

Fred

C

carsjam

Participant

I came here looking for an answer to my problem which was, after switching on "snapshot" mode, I could not revert back to select and copy text. The right-mouse trick did not work for me, nor did I want to roll back to an old version (since resistance is futile). After a great deal of weeding out of off-topic help pages, I finally found this elegant answer (not covered in the manual and not easy to find -- are you listening Adobe?):

The Snapshot tool copies an area as an image that you can paste into other applications.

Choose Edit > Take a Snapshot.
Drag a rectangle around the area you want to copy, and then release the mouse button.
Press the Esc key to exit Snapshot mode.

In another application, choose Edit > Paste to paste the copied image.

via: Adobe Reader X * Copy content from PDFs

A

Anonymous

To copy and paste selected text in Adobe Reader X:

1. Choose Edit > Take Snapshot

2. Click and drag an area around the text you want to copy, then release the mouse button.

3. Press Esc to exit Snapshot mode.

4. In another application press Edit > Paste to paste the selected text.

M

MATHEUS229244559ivy

Participant

Just needed that Esc tip, after struggling with this snapshot mode for months. Thank you very much! ^^

J

joph12

Participant

hi,

Here is the procedure to select the text,

right click anywhere and switch from hand tool to select tool,

than select the text you want and copy it. Paste it where you like it to.

I tried this and it works on mine.

U

u_m1

Participant

Recently I have run across PDF documents that are not an image in the sense that each page is a single image, but rather they are made of lots of individual images, even to the point that each letter is its own image. As such documents are technically not containing text, the text select tool won't work, and this is not an Acrobat issue.

In particular these kind of documents seem to be generated when you print a pop-up window (Ctrl-p, or right-click print) on certain web pages (UPS, for example) from within Google Chrome to PDF.

The easiest way to find out if you happen to have such a document is to open such a document in Acrobat Reader, go to File->Properties, Font tab. You should see that there are no or very few fonts listed, and in particular the fonts you see in the document are not there.

A

Anonymous

I use to be able to open a tax map online (in pdf format), use the select tool to select and highlight the area around the lot I wanted to print and then "print selection" to print only that lot. Since upgrading to readerX I no longer have the select option. I understand that it's not text I am trying to select, rather I am trying to highlight and print just a portion of the document open on the page. However, it was something I did rather easily before making the mistake upgrading.

Is there anyway, now, that I can select which parts of the map I print?

Claudio González

Legend

Are you sure that your file contains actual text, and not images of text? Very frequently, if one cannot select text in a PDF, it's because there is no text there.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded