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bwachtel
Participant
March 23, 2017
Answered

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC: Highlight tool changes from freehand to text select.

  • March 23, 2017
  • 16 replies
  • 129590 views

I need to backcheck some pdf drawings and to do so, i highlight my original markup if its been picked up. While doing this, ive noticed there are two forms of the highlight tool. Both come from the same tool button the "highlight tool". One form is a circular cursor that does freehand highlighting. The other is a vertical bar like a capitol letter "I" that only highlights text. I cant determine why, but the version of the tool that i get to use varies between pdf's. Is there a way to set the freehand tool as default?

Thank you for the help!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer yvonner90879585

    You probably have worked this out by now, it took me a while to figure it out as well. If it is a scanned pdf then you need to do/run a text recognition/image recognition on the page (or you can also choose the entire document).  Once you do that it recognizes the individual sentences and then the text cursor appears.  I use the Comment tool, select with the text cursor then click on the highlighter symbol to highlight the selected text.

    16 replies

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    S
    SinaK
    Participant
    March 18, 2020

    I know this post is quite old, but since I was still wondering the same and it looks like the marked answer doesn't quite address the question, here is what I found:

    Instead of using Highlight tool, use the Pen tool, adjust color and opacity and it would work as a highlight and it is definitely free form and has nothing to do with if the PDF has recoginized text, images or etc.

      M
      Madison5C3B
      Participant
      June 17, 2021

      Thanks for your solution!  Within the Comments toolbox, I used the line tool and it worked perfectly.  I would add, once the line tool is selected, use Cntl-E to choose color, thickness and opacity.

        Y
        yvonner90879585Correct answer
        Participant
        May 12, 2018

        You probably have worked this out by now, it took me a while to figure it out as well. If it is a scanned pdf then you need to do/run a text recognition/image recognition on the page (or you can also choose the entire document).  Once you do that it recognizes the individual sentences and then the text cursor appears.  I use the Comment tool, select with the text cursor then click on the highlighter symbol to highlight the selected text.

          V
          vixen24
          Participant
          March 20, 2018

          Right click on the highlighter pen.  Click on Show Properties.  Click on keep tool selected.

            stephanieh5619893
            stephanieh5619893
            Participant
            March 26, 2018

            Nope it still creates an Oval rather than just highlighting the area/text you select. Any other ideas?

              AnandSri
              Community Manager
              AnandSriCommunity Manager
              Community Manager
              April 6, 2018

              Hello Stephanieh,

              Sorry for the delayed response and inconvenience caused. Would you mind sharing a screenshot of the Oval shape highlighter? To share the screenshot, refer to https://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-7043#jive_content_id_How_do_I_attach_a_screenshot

              Have you tried with another PDF file or is it specific to this PDF file?

              Also, check for any pending updates of Acrobat from help>check for updates, reboot the machine after installing the updates and see if this brings any difference.

              Also, what is the dot version of Acrobat installed on your computer? To identify refer to Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

              Let us know how it goes and share your findings.


              Regards,Anand Sri.

                W
                waltert53427587
                Participant
                April 25, 2017

                I have Adobe pro dc. I received a pdf file of 200+ pages. I want to highlight some entries. All I can find is the freehand O shaped icon that makes it look like a 5 year old or a drunk highlighted it. So how to I mark text and then color it?

                Bernd Alheit
                Community Expert
                Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                April 26, 2017

                Use Tools > Enhance Scans

                Then you can select text and highlight it.

                curtisa11388261
                curtisa11388261
                Participant
                June 1, 2017

                Nope that don't work either. No it seems to be only on this document I downloaded. It is OCR, I have edited and saved as a different file. I optimized it stil only the O and the selection tool the cross

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                  bwachtelAuthor
                  Participant
                  March 23, 2017

                  Also, I am sure someone will provide this workaround. I am aware that i can change the drawing freehand tool to mimic a highlighter. I would just prefer to have the freehand highlighter instead of a workaround.

                    try67
                    Community Expert
                    try67Community Expert
                    Community Expert
                    March 23, 2017

                    If there's no text in the file then the text selection option will never appear... Maybe someone ran Text Recognition on it at some point?

                    B
                    bwachtelAuthor
                    Participant
                    March 23, 2017

                    I think my issue just might be an outdated software. Is this correct?

                    try67
                    Community Expert
                    try67Community Expert
                    Community Expert
                    March 23, 2017

                    When you hover with the mouse above text it will automatically switch to the text selection mode. If you want it to always be in "free form" mode hold down Ctrl while using it.

                      Document Geek
                      Community Expert
                      Document GeekCommunity Expert
                      Community Expert
                      June 6, 2017

                      Are you on Mac or PC? I tried using that trick, but I can't get it to stay in freeform mode. I am on a mac.

                        curtisa11388261
                        curtisa11388261
                        Participant
                        June 7, 2017

                        I am on PC running windows 10.

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