Acrobat Pro preferences > Content Editing > reading order

[Mike Witherell]

In Acrobat Pro, under Preferences > Content Editing

In here you can choose your pixel editor, your vector editor, and your fonts.

But...

What is Reading Order? What does it do related to Content Editing? Why would I change it from Left to Right, Top to Bottom to something else?

I cannot find anything in the Helpfiles about this setting. 

Does anyone know what this is?

[BarlaeDC]

Hi,

It depends on the document you would be editing

English and a lot of other languages == left to right, top to bottom

Arabic and Hebrew, == right to left, top to bottom

Chinese and Japanese == top to bottom, right to left

That are the ones I know.

Hope this helps

[Mike Witherell]

Thanks BarlaeDC, yes languages flow in different directions, but why is the preference here in Content Editing specifically? What does reading order have to do with content editing? For example, in changing it, it seems to have no effect on searching text.

[BarlaeDC]

Hi, I would assume it only has an effect if you are actually editing the content in the file, i.e. it controls how the cursor acts when you type a word.

[Mike Witherell]

It does not appear to control or effect how the cursor acts when you type, for example, within the Edit PDF tool.

[izone_1947]

The "Reading Order" in Acrobat Pro under Preferences > Content Editing is primarily used to control how Acrobat interprets the visual flow of content when editing or reflowing a document. By default, it’s set to "Left to Right, Top to Bottom," which reflects the natural reading order for most Western languages. Changing this might be relevant if you're working with content in languages or layouts that have a different reading flow (e.g., right-to-left or custom designs).

It’s not directly tied to visual editing like pixel/vector editing but influences how text and objects are interpreted structurally for editing. Unfortunately, the Helpfiles lack details on this feature, but experimenting can reveal its effect on editing workflows.

Hope this clears things up for you! Let me know if you need more insights, Mike. Also, check izonedeals for helpful software tips!

[Mike Witherell]

139 words that have no answer. But thanks for the spammy hyperlink.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Hi Mike, I used this feature in a number of occaisons. When I open an Arabic magazine, or long Arabic report, this reading feature along with the "Two-page view" allows me to view facing pages on my screen where page 1 on the right and page 2 on the left.

Note, since I view long English documents as well, I'd rather leave the preferences settings to the default, but change the Reading Options in the "Document Properties" only.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Oh, I just realized that "Reading Order" in the Preferences isn't related to the page order display. I believe it is related to the Accessibility and Read Out Loud option under the View menu.

[Mike Witherell]

Thanks Zaid. I am aware that different world languages flow in different directions. I am familiar with accessibility and Read Out Loud and even article reading order. My question continues to be: Why is Reading Order here in the Content Editing preference of Acrobat Pro? This appears to be entirely undocumented. Further, the Organize Pages seems to be a different thing from Content (Editing).

[JR Boulay]

The trick to editing text boxes in a PDF is to select the block as an object and right-click to edit it with Illustrator, which is much easier than with Acrobat.
This option is used to tell Illustrator which way the text should be edited.

[Mike Witherell]

Thanks JR. I tried setting the Content Editing reading order to Bottom to Top; Right to Left. Also other orders. When I edited with Illustrator, it made no difference to the text. What should I expect to see happen? I feel like something undocumented is at work in this obscure Content Editing preference.