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A
Anonymous
September 9, 2011
Question

Copy Highlighted Text in Pdf file

  • September 9, 2011
  • 15 replies
  • 90190 views

Hi everyone,

Recently I downloaded the Adobe Reader X (version 10.0). This version allows me to highlight text (in yellow colour). However, If I want to copy a highlighted block of text (for instance to paste into a Word document), I am not able to do this. When I select the highlighted text and click on the right mouse click, it doesn't give me the opportunity to copy this text. Therefore, I was wondering whether I can copy the highlighted text in another way?

Thanks in advance for a reply.

Kind regards,

Sleighon

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      15 replies

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      A
      Anonymous
      September 25, 2014

      hold alt and shift 

      click and drag to select

      ctrl c - copy

      ctrl v - paste

        S
        sincere_Radiance16B8
        Known Participant
        January 29, 2014

        +1 on the almost complete fail on the user experience with the Highlight function in Acrobat.

        When reviewing a document, why does someone go to the trouble to Highlight text in the first place?

        Usually, it's because you want to draw attention for yourself and others to key phrases. In a business context, that almost always involves repurposing the content in other software outside the PDF rather than only sharing the annotated PDF with others.

        Why can one not simply right-click any highlighted area and select copy from a context menu? THAT IS WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO DO.

        In fact, let's go one further:

        The Comments List is useless. Once you've highlighted important text passages, the Comments List shows you each highlighting location with a timestamp as an entry in the list, but NOT THE HIGHLIGHTED TEXT! What is the point? For what percentage of Acrobat users is that the desired functionality?

        Why can I not spend the time while reading to highlight important passages and then EXPORT/COPY THE COMPLETE LIST OF HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGES? Again, this is what people want to do. And this threaded conversation is proof.

          S
          Spire8
          Participant
          October 7, 2011

          Agreed. More than a nuisace, hindering productivity. Any solutions appreciated.

          S
          sarahhelen123
          Participant
          May 9, 2012

          It's not very practical, but I got around this by selecting a larger area than the highlighted text I wanted to copy, i.e. starting before the part I wanted and finishing after it. Then pasting the whole lot, and deleting the parts I didn't want after pasting it.

          I don't understand why it's not possible just to copy highlighted text though, it seems ridiculous to remove the option!

            G
            g4tay
            Participant
            January 19, 2013

            I don't understand why it isn't possible to copy highlighted text either.  The suggestion to expand the area beyone the highlighted section is great but, again, it is inconvenient and hampers productivity.  Simply put, it is a nuisance in adition to being stupid.  Not a characteristic that is often attributed to Adobe products!!!

              Bernd Alheit
              Community Expert
              Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              September 22, 2011

              When I select the highlighted text and click on the right mouse click, it doesn't give me the opportunity to copy this text.

              Which options did you get?

              W
              What will work?
              Participant
              September 22, 2011

              Same problem here. This is a nuisance.

                AbhigyanModi
                Community Manager
                AbhigyanModiCommunity Manager
                Community Manager
                September 23, 2011

                Select the text (not the highlight) and press Ctrl+C.

                G
                geexploitation
                Participant
                September 30, 2011

                I have this problem too. The problem is that I CAN'T "Select the text (not the highlight)". If I have a paragraph of text highlighted in a PDF and the selection tool enabled, when I mouse over the highlighted text my cursor changes from a standard cursor to four-sided arrow. If I click on the block of highlighting, the block itself is selected (not the text beneath it).

                So, to repeat, how does one select the text if it is already highlighted?

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