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Ethereal_Cosmos15A9
Participating Frequently
Jan 25, 2018 5:53 PM UTC
Question

Unable to change select tool or highlighter size, therefore, unable to select single line of text

Using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro, intending simply to highlight a single line of text, the selection frame is HUGE and I'm unable to select a single line of anything.

When accessing selection properties (right-click>properties), the only (Appearance) options available are for color and opacity - not sizing.

What little I find in tutorials, self-help support, and community forums indicates I should be able to "grab handles", but no handles ever show up or become available.

Suggestions?  Solutions?

Thanks!

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    25 replies

    Jeff370
    Jeff370
    Participating Frequently
    Sep 28, 2023 6:15 PM UTC

    YES. The Highlighter selection area needs a preference to make it smaller or the ability to resize the selection area. When I am working on single lines with no spacing, I have to enlarge the screen, where it looks like 96 96-point size to highlight. 

     
    Something Adobe needs to work on. 

    Does Adobe ever listen to their customers? 

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    ITWorks
    Participant
    Aug 16, 2019 7:00 PM UTC

    I was still having the same issue as reported above (huge cursor/highlighter) when trying to print a web page as a PDF.  I have figured out that it only happens when I use "Print to PDF".  If I switch to "Save as PDF" (for the same exact web page), it seems to work fine...I am then able to highlight only one line at a time in the resultant PDF (and also select one line at a time with the cursor/selection tool ).   Hope this somehow helps someone.  

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      default1vjmt2r5yg9t
      Participant
      Mar 23, 2021 3:51 PM UTC

      I encountered this issue suddenly yesterday. Prior I was able to print or download or save without any highlighting issues. Today I have found that I have to use the Pring to PDF function in order to be able to select lines of text for highlighting or copying. I hope this helps someone else.

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      MojoGene
      Participant
      Jul 10, 2021 2:55 PM UTC

      After lots of frustration and experimentation with this issue, here are my observations.

      The problem usually occurs with "Print to PDF" from a web page or other non-Adobe source. 

      If you select "Edit PDF" in the saved document, you will see that there are multiple overlapping text boxes often with different size/types of text in each box.

      If you try to "select" text from one of these overlapping text boxes, it apparently puts the program into a state of uncertainty about what it being selected, so you get bizarre results.

      Best solution is to print the orignal document to a non-Adobe source, e.g., Microsoft XPS Document Writer. 

      Once that is done, you can "Print to PDF" from the converted, non-Adobe document and, from my experience, always get a "normal," text-selectable PDF.

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        LitleF0ots Wheel
        Participating Frequently
        Apr 29, 2019 7:33 PM UTC

        Has any one resolved this issue? I am having the same issue...

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          Sail East West
          Sail East West
          Participant
          Sep 3, 2018 6:12 PM UTC

          I also have this problem as described by the other above and it began within the last 2 weeks.  Today I selected "Save as PDF" instead of printing.  The resulting PDF seems to behave normally now. 

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          niftynici
          niftynici
          Participant
          Aug 21, 2018 3:21 PM UTC

          I have the same issue!! The highlighter tool used to work, and now it's GIGANTIC! Help!!

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          skyfly99
          skyfly99
          Participant
          Aug 30, 2018 5:52 AM UTC

          I'm having the same problem myself. I print a page to PDF then save and then try highlighting and its huge and annoying. Please help with this problem. It worked just fine before.

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            riazh3739085
            riazh3739085
            Participant
            Mar 19, 2018 6:50 AM UTC

            I  got the same problem as you.

            This problem started around about January 2018. Before that I could highlight single lines.

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            Document Geek
            Community Expert
            Document GeekCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            Jan 25, 2018 8:17 PM UTC

            Grab handles do not appear on highlighter marks, only on stamps or drawing markups.

            Can you try selecting the text with the hand tool (Make sure  and then right-click, highlight text. Make sure you have your preferences set to allow the hand tool to select text.

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              Ethereal_Cosmos15A9Author
              Participating Frequently
              Jan 25, 2018 9:14 PM UTC

              Thanks for responding and asking for details, Document Geek!

              No ... although I have the same settings as you, I cannot select text with the hand tool.

              I've considered "help>repair installation", just to reset some things back to defaults.  (Perhaps something was changed unintentionally or an add-in feature/update corrupted something.)

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              Ethereal_Cosmos15A9Author
              Participating Frequently
              Jan 25, 2018 9:28 PM UTC

              Just FYI ... "Help>Repair Installation" did not change anything.  Still huge.

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