Can't select or copy text

[victors29152714]

Suddenly I am not able to select and copy any text from any PDF document, whether from a PDF I have created that contains renderable text, or from a scan that I have used text recognition on. All I get is a hand symbol. None of the documents are protected. It worked a few days ago! I use Windows 10, have Adobe Acrobat Standard 2015.

[Bernd Alheit · Accepted solution]

Activate the select tool and select the text.

[marianav67924224]

Unfortunately, this does not work. When I click on the select tool and want to select text, it makes a shape (blue rectangle) over the text, but it is not the same as when you select text anywhere else, normally. The "select tool" pictogram also shows a little rectangle next to the "arrow" (bottom right).   So ti looks like this, but then nothing happens.:

[Bernd Alheit]

This looks like a image without selectable text.

[RoxA7]

Funny isn't it.  Adobe Acrobat Pro - the most expensive and supposedly advanced PDF product can't see this is text when the free MACOS Preview can, even if that text is actually an image.  Time to catch up Adobe!

And while you are at it, allow capture of text without selecting unrelated text in an adjoining area.

Lastly, how about some useful actions for capturing and extracting text in PDF invoices etc and allowing this to be passed to some other system.

[Selestiall]

If you read OP's post, they claim the OCR'd the document so techinically, it should be able to select text. I have a user that also has this problem with selecting text from a PDF that we convert from a MS Word doc to PDF. It wont allow him to select text while using the mouse, but if we completely close out of Adobe, and reopen the PDF, it starts working again. It only affects the ability to use the mouse to highlight and select text. If you use CTRL+A it works no issues, but it you try using the mouse cursor it doesnt work.

[RoxA7]

Yes, the OP's post did say that but I was making commentary (adding to the discussion) on the lack of functionality in this area with Adobe Acrobat as these forums are really the only way to vent when there is an issue.  Adobe's OCR seems quite good at finding words but if the words are part of an image it isn't good at all and whilst Ctrl-A will get everything that was found (excluding any text in part of the document it thinks is an image) but with anything other than a plain text, single column document, it will be in a garbled order, unusable without significant further effort.  Other tools seem to be much better here than Acrobat, which is a shame considering the premium charged for it.

[rise.lu]

Maybe the tool is available but not visible: you can try shortcuts, "h" is for hand tool, "v" is for the selection tool. 
Shortcuts must be activated via edit / preferences/ general / use single-key shortcuts

[gmfct07]

I am having a similar problem with the Adobe Acrobat DC app that I rent.  As usual the problem has arisen from out of the blue, with no clue as to what is causing it.  I am sick and tired to squandering time on problems that come out of nowhere, with no clue as to a solution.  My problem is that the cursor appears as a lengthy vertical line instead of the usual image.  So I cannot select a link, provided in a readable  Adobe / PDF document, that I wish to import to the search field in order to access a document cited in the original pdf document.

[Victoria27144301pbg8]

I am having the same problem. PDFs that I previously could select and copy text from I now don't appear to have any select option. The PDFs are not protected so I don't understand why. If I choose the 'edit pdf' option I can then 'select all' from a whole paragraph of text but I still can't just select a sentence or section. This appears to have happened when my Adobe Acrobat Pro was updated.

[Victoria27144301pbg8]

I have just done a remote session with an Adobe support specialist. there is a potential work-around where if you click at the beginning of the word you want to copy, then hold 'shift' and use the arrows to select the text you want. it is a bit of a long-winded solution, but it worked for me when my cursor was not selecting any of the text. Otherwise your Adobe Acrobat software may need to be 'repaired'. you can contact Adobe through the chat support function and they will put you through to a specialist for a remote session to repair the installed software - this solved the issue for me.