plugin creation

Plug-ins are an event driven process. The only things that happen in your code are because of events, so you cannot dismiss this for later.

So... when the user selects from the menu the plug-in highlights text.

Typically highlights are drawn on each time the page is redrawn (for example after the user zooms or scrolls). This means you have to respond to page draw events. You also have to NOT respond to redraw events for a different document. Drawing is not a simple task, and best not included in a first project.

At some point the user will want to stop - do you plan a separate menu item for that?

2. What events  run your code? For example, will your code run only when someone chooses a menu item? Or at intervals? Many possibilities, but also many limitations.

Also you will need to be a C or C++ programmer. We cannot fill in that gap in your knowledge and will not create sample code for you.

Why do you want sample code, when you aren't going to run Acrobat??

Have you looked at the SDK documentation? There are thousands of pages of methods, and you won't want to read all that for the first day, but there is a lot of necessary information. You will also need basic knowledge of PDF internals and graphics models - see the PDF Reference.

Then you must contact Adobe Customer Services. WE CANNOT DO THIS IN THE FORUM.

Contact Adobe customer service immediately. There is a very limited time for a refund, before you automatically commit to a contract.  But why would you cancel? You cannot do this project if you don't have Acrobat, why would you even start it?

I don't understand your question. "Enabled to Acrobat" is not a familiar term.

The plug-in only runs when it is loaded by Acrobat Pro. Until you run it in Acrobat Pro, nothing will run, nothing exists, there is no output, no breakpoints have any effect, nothing.

Imagine your question as "how can I get results from my EXE file without running it" and you will see that your question is difficult for us to answer.

More details:

1. a plug-in is loaded by Acrobat Pro when you start Acrobat Pro, if it is in the right folder, and built correctly.

2. Acrobat Pro runs the PluginMain routine, which must do certain setup. If the setup is not done correctly, the plug-in is unloaded and forgotten.

3. The setup must define some callbacks. These could include menu items in Acrobat (this is easiest for testing).

4. The plug-in code is not touched until the callbacks are needed. For example, if you added a menu item in Acrobat, then a routine in your code will be executed when the end user selects the menu item.

If you are trying to write a plug-in from scratch, stop and throw this away.

You can suppose what you like, but that isn't what will happen, and it isn't what we'd expect to happen. Find an alternative. I explained how you can make output. You can also use breakpoints to discover what your plug-in is doing. This can be awkward, but it is well worth the effort.

> once i build a plugin in visual studio, only a couple of libraries and .api file gets generated.

The API is the complete deliverable - what you or others install to Acrobat.

> but the output of the plugin does not appear on the console.

That's correct. Plug-ins are not command line tools to write to the console. GUI apps don't write to the console.

If you want to write information, open a file. If you want to inspect the file while Acrobat is running, use Open (Append), Write, Close for each line.

You need to use the exact version in the documentation for your SDK. Once you are an expert you may be able to convert your project to run in another release.