Find and replace error message?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
September 1, 2020
2 replies
6982 views

I have multiple 500+ page PDFs that require the find/replace function for every page. When I begin, it finds and replaces the first few instances of the word, then I get an error message that says "Unable to highlight text across multiple text boxes." Any ideas??

General troubleshooting

Correct answer try67

I didn't suggest you do it manually, but doing it in Acrobat is not the solution, either. It has not Search & Replace All command, so anyway you'll have to click the Replace button 8000+ times to do it, and it's very likely something will go wrong along the way. PDF files were simply not meant to be edited in such an extensive way.

A

ARPV

Participant

I had the same error. This is a clunky solution, but if you are able to--convert the files to a word doc, then do your find/replace, then convert back to pdf.

try67

Community Expert

Not clunky at all. This is what you should be doing, if you don't have access to the original file.

U

Una379090443wtu

Participating Frequently

I have a PDF that is made up of scanned documents. The original was prepared by someone else using Adobe Reader, which only had the function of adding red text boxes. I have to change a phrase in 68 text boxes.

When I use my version of Reader, I can search for the phrases but must use multiple clicks to edit each box indivudually, which is time consuming. When I use Acrobat DC, I can search but when I try to replace an error message appears "Unable to highlight text in Form Fields".

If I convert to word as suggested, the formatting turns into a mess, because the original are scans of different types of certificates and the conversion handles the different components poorly. Despite disabling "Field detection", Adobe seems to try to force parcing into a form.

I just want to be able to "find and replace" text in the document, including Adobe generated text boxes. It seems odd that a text box created in Adobe software can't be edited by Adobe.

try67

Community Expert

Go back to the original file format, make the changes there and then create a new PDF file.

R

Rae5FB1Author

Participant

I'm not sure I understand. I can't manually find/replace as that is over 8,000 corrections. I need this function to work! What do I correct on the initial files in order for find/replace to work? Any ideas why it is not working? I have Acrobat standard and I'm on a PC. My boss has Acrobat Pro and is on a Mac, and does not run into this issue. Do I need to upgrade to Pro?

try67

Correct answer

Community Expert

I didn't suggest you do it manually, but doing it in Acrobat is not the solution, either. It has not Search & Replace All command, so anyway you'll have to click the Replace button 8000+ times to do it, and it's very likely something will go wrong along the way. PDF files were simply not meant to be edited in such an extensive way.

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