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Calybos1
Participating Frequently
July 17, 2020
Question

Lock function for images/objects?

  • July 17, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1392 views

I'm trying to add, copy, and rearrange a number of text and graphic elements on a page that has a large background image (filling the entire page), and I keep accidentally selecting and dragging the background image by mistake. It's not possible to draw a selection box around anything without clicking the background image.

Acrobat doesn't seem to have a way to "lock" the background in place so it can't be dragged or deleted. Any suggestions?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

J
jacob24829150gptp
Participant
October 13, 2022

a thing i found after having this same issue. im not trying to reinvent the wheel with my document, i just want to lock the bg image which is not a high ask of any adobe product. I went into Edit PDF, open Layers (which is useless mind you) and "import as layer" my image, which then creates a layer with just that image i can hide or go into and lock. but why that process is so strenious? well never know. 

once i finished this i realized IT DOESNT LOCK A SINGLE THING ON THE PAGE WHAT A USELESS APP
Also theyll let you create a layer in acrobat but i cant delete one hahaha. 

try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
October 13, 2022

Digitally sign the file and/or apply a security policy to it if you want to lock its contents.

J
jacob24829150gptp
Participant
October 14, 2022

haha appreciate you but I'm not trying to put a security policy on a pdf. All I wanted is to lock a background image from being selected and moving so I can do minor text editing like changing a time and date. But alas Illustrator conquers again. 

try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
July 17, 2020

Don't do it in Acrobat... It was not meant to be this type of editor, and PDF files were not meant to be edited like it, so doing so will always be tricky and often very frustrating. Go back to the original file used to create the PDF, make the changes there and then create a new PDF file from it.

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