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Participant
Oct 20, 2026 9:58 PM UTC
Answered

Drag and drop selected text

Latest Acrobat, on Windows 11.  I can’t select some text sentences in a PDF with the mouse, and drag them to a MS Word document using selection tool.  Drag&Drop of selected text works in latest Firefox PDF and SumatraPDF 3.7, but Acrobat fails. The text is selectable but Acrobat doesn’t drag it out. Copy to clipboard (and then paste in Word) is too slow, too many clicks, and cumbersome. How can I get this basic drag&drop feature to work? I recall it working in the distant past in Acrobat.

    Bernd Alheit
    Bernd AlheitCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    Oct 21, 2026 3:01 AM UTC

    Try this:

    In the preferences disable the protection mode. 

    5 replies

    Bernd Alheit
    Community Expert
    Bernd AlheitCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    Oct 21, 2026 3:01 AM UTC

    Try this:

    In the preferences disable the protection mode. 

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    Participant
    Oct 22, 2026 2:54 AM UTC

    This worked, thanks

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    justlearn
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Oct 20, 2026 11:19 PM UTC

    ​@Blissful_discoverer3045 are you using the new Acrobat interface while trying to select the text? If so, I would disable this, View - Disable new Acrobat. I have found I have less issues with the classic interface verus the new interface

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    m
    Participant
    Oct 21, 2026 1:51 AM UTC

    It doesn’t drag the text in either the new or the classic interface.

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    justlearn
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Oct 21, 2026 3:23 AM UTC

    ​@Blissful_discoverer3045 the arrow is your select tool (and I am using the classic view). Select the text and I normally just drag the text to my deskto whuch makes an untitled.rtf file
     


    now, if by chance this is an image, then selecting the text won’t be possible:


    Unless, you use one of the tools to turn scans or photos into searchable PDFs with selectable text. This tool is Scan & OCR

     

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    m