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Question

Can not copy text from epub in Adobe Digital Editions and paste in e.g. Word

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
August 4, 2016
15 replies
59862 views

There are several threads in this support forum asking all likely the same question, how to copy text passages from an epub opened in Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to another application or text editor like Word, Notepad, Open Office ...

Copying from adobe digital editions

Re: Copying text to my term papers. Ctrl+C doesn't work. Help!!

Problems with Copy/Paste This question is Not Answered. no longer copy text and paste into another document? I was able to a minute ago... I've tried closing and re-opening. I am able to highlight the text and make notes but the copy function is no lo

how do I copy text from an epub book?

Digitl Edition EBook copy text option not available

... but remain unanswered. That's a little odd, due to the fact that it seems to be an issue for a bunch of people.

Is it just impossible or a bug in ADE?

I use latest version ADE 4.5.1 on Windows 7. The tested epubs have no DRM. And they are not blocked by Windows.

What I found out so far, if I open the same epub in an older version (ADE 3.0) I can copy and paste text without any problems. But if I open it in ADE 4.5.1 I can only copy once and then the option is greyed out in the context menu (also ctrl + c doesn't work). So for every copy paste I need to reopen the ebook. So it is useless for scientific work, where you need to cite a lot from different books.

Is there a workaround or will there be a patch from Adobe? Or can someone suggest a similar eReader application for desktop users?

L

loyal_mentor7890

Participant

I thought I fixed it, but I didn't.

But I just found a hack... it's a few steps, so it's only worth it if you really want to copy the text.

1. Take a screen shot of the text

2. Drop it into Google Translate (image)

3. Copy the "translated" text into a google doc... it will copy over the text with no formatting issues.

D

diana_4722

Participant

Just checking back in to see if anyone has found a work around. I've tried the several methods mentioned throughout this post, but nothing has worked for me (and my book allows copying).

P

p_1767

Participant

Same problem. Would sometimes copy, sometimes not, sometimes copy different text to which I'd selected. I found an answer: use other software. I used Calibre and it works.

J

John Smith Smith

Participant

The software appears abandoned but if possible pls release a quick fix, even imported books from my pc can't copy.

rémid18650607

Participant

For me, it will be the first and last time I'm using this ADE, designers completely forgot to think about the user. Impossible to copy indeed

S

SIHDHS

Participant

2024 and they still haven't fixed it smh....

D

defaultyzlx7gbxwld8

Participant

STILL NOT WORKING! unbelievable considering they said they were on it this time last year

D

defaultuc08512aorxo

Participant

Doing my masters degree. Got tons of books I cannot copy from. October 2021. What the... adobe?

K

Kristýna218642132vua

Participant

same here. doing reading and translating for my uni and cant copy paste. im really PISSED OFF. get this fixed ALREADY

T

Tainah5DC3

Participant

Inacreditável. 2020 e ainda não foi arrumado.

O que achei mais estranho é que eu estava conseguindo fazer o copia e cola de um livro (uso o recurso para fazer resumos de estudo) e de repende parou de funcionar. Isso prova que o problema não está relacionado com a permissão, parece um bug mesmo.

P

Prasanna92

Participant

I was having the same issue , i added it to library and now it works!?

M

Matt Cooper

Participant

I've just come across this issue (or a similar one, ADE was crashing when i tried to copy a bit of text so that i could search for it for citing purposes)

I found a solution on another thread, run ADE as administrator on a windows machine and it no longer crashes!

K

kristina.sooy

Participant

Is there a workaround for Mac users, though?

AJIT_M

Community Manager

Hi All,

Apologies for the inconvenience caused to you.

I would like to inform you that we can see the issue at our end with the copy function, where "copy" option is randomly available in the eBook (Where the copy option is already enabled/allowed by the Seller), And in order to copy again, you may have to re-open the eBook sometimes.

We have already logged the internal bug for the same for further investigation and Product team is already looking into it.

We will keep you all posted once we have any further update.

Regards,

Ajit

A

Adrianna5E76

Participant

It has been a year, and this copy and paste issue is unresolved. Are there any updates on what the issue is and how to solve it? I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program. I have forced quit and reopened. I know the copy and paste feature works on this eBook. What is the update??

M

Mugan

Participant

Really !! How still they can not solve that problem.

C

chrisd30279893

Participant

Yup, still broke.

O

OPA—ENVHA

Participant

This is appaling software. Like 1990. I have version 4.5.11.187303. I need to copy text. That is fundamental to do the work. This software is about security only. It is not for buyers or users. The quality of the software is just so poor. A very fine book becomes a rip-off due to the required reader. Unless the copy text issue is resolved, this the first and last product for this software that I will buy.

Due to the lockdown I can not get a paper version. I bought a book without looking at the reader required.

You want to write something that would make them fix this,but if Adobe obviously just don't care ... boycott and avoid this company as much as possible I suppose.