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K
Kelsea2535915793pr
Participant
January 22, 2025
Answered

Blank white squares in 'edit pdf' screen

  • January 22, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 2787 views

Hello, every week I have to edit pdfs and in the past few months I have been running into an issue. When I click 'edit pdf' and select my text to move it around on my page, there are some invisible white squares that in some sections that block the text. I can move the text up to the front to make it visible, but I was wondering if there was some way to see what these squares are so I can delete them. I can't seem to select them and Adobe can't detect a background in the pdf.

Correct answer AnandSri

did you ever find a solutiton to this issue?

 


Hello @brian_7080

 

I hope you are doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response and the trouble.

 

Could you please share more details about the issue? Are you experiencing the same issue mentioned in the original post? Is it happening with all the PDFs, or is it specific to one? Are you on a Windows machine or a Mac, and what is the version? Could you please share a screenshot of blank white boxes and a sample PDF? 

 

Disable PDF/A Viewing Mode. 
These white overlays may be caused by PDF/A viewing mode, which restricts editing and can misinterpret layout elements:

Go to Menu> Preferences > Documents.
Under PDF/A View Mode, set it to Never.
Restart Acrobat and try editing again. See this article and try the suggestions: https://adobe.ly/4lE33uC

 

Acrobat may treat these white squares as hidden form fields or annotations:

Go to Edit PDF > More > Object Inspector.
Hover over the white square area to identify hidden objects.
If detected, delete or flatten them.

 

Flatten the PDF
Flattening removes interactive elements and hidden layers:

Open the PDF.
Go to Print Production > Flattener Preview.
Check Convert All Text to Outlines and Rasterize All Content.
Apply and save the file.

 

Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20630, Planned update, Aug 18, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app and the machine, and try again.

 

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

Meet Acrobat Studio

1 reply

BarlaeDC
Community Expert
BarlaeDCCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 23, 2025

Hi,

 

Are you able to share a PDF or screen shot that shows the problem?

K
Kelsea2535915793prAuthor
Participant
January 23, 2025

Here's an example. I generated this test file and opened it in Adobe Acrobat Pro, then selected 'Edit PDF'. When I highlight the text with the selection tool or right click and 'Select All', then use the arrow keys to scott the text down it starts becoming obscured by white. 

K
Kelsea2535915793prAuthor
Participant
January 23, 2025

Oh and here's the file

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