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

[bwachtel]

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!

[try67]

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.

[bwachtel]

This is a scanned document, so there is no text. Also i tried holding control when highlighting and it did not make it the freehand highlight tool.

[Document Geek]

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]

I am on PC running windows 10.

[Heather29622006x9o0]

Holding down the Ctrl button unfortunately doesn't change it over to the "free form" mode. I had better capabilities regarding the highlighter using Adobe Acrobat Reader than I now do after paying for a subscription of Adobe Acrobat Pro. How sad is that?!? I'm working on engineering drawings and need to highlight elements on the drawing that are not text, so I can count how many specific items we need to order for our client. Only being able to highlight the text in the Pro version makes a person question splashing out the money on the paid version of the software. If someone knows a 2023 version of how to show the "free form" highlighter tool, that is still very useful in the current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, please advise.

[bwachtel]

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]

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?

[bwachtel]

I think my issue just might be an outdated software.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

[try67]

Could be... It's usually a good idea to have the latest version installed.

[bwachtel]

Tell that to our IT... Well ill see if i can get them to push an update out. Thanks again for the help.

[waltert53427587]

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]

Use Tools > Enhance Scans

Then you can select text and highlight it.

[curtisa11388261]

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

[Jim Blythe]

I had the same problem and just talked to Adobe and it was quickly solved. The problem was that the Edit Text recognize text, which they tell you to use, is nearly worthless for this. What you need to do is go to Tools>Enhance Scan. Choose: Enhance>Scanned document. Pick Settings. There you can also set language, etc. Be sure that Recognize Text options is set for the output to be Editable Text & Images and that the source language is correct. Click OK. Then pick Pages>All Pages.  Then click Recognize text (a different button to the right). When it is done be sure to save. You will then be able to go to Tools>Comments, select the highlight tool, and you’re set. It's amazing that this simple thing, which doubtless millions want to do and was very simple in the standalone Acrobat Pro was made so awkward here.

[vixen24]

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

[stephanieh5619893]

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

[AnandSri]

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.

[jeank70910233]

Anand Sri - I'm having the same text highlighting problem you addressed here. I want to keep the highlighter tool as a text highlighter NOT freeform. I didn't see you give a specific answer, though. Help?

[yvonner90879585 · Accepted solution]

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.

[SinaK]

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.

[Madison5C3B]

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.

[J3nny1]

Many thanks for this work around!!!

[Marcus5C7F]

Same issue. This cannot possibly be an upgrade.  It's a definite downgrade.  In recent documents, I was able to nicely highlight in a straight, block pattern and now it has changed to a circle highlighter that is anything but uniform... it's a disaster.  Also, underlining, which worked along with the old highlighter, no longer functions.  

[Dave Moe]

I'm a long-time Acrobat Pro DC user and have the same problem highlighting text as described by Marcus5C7F

on 9/22/2020.  For me, this is a major disappointment!