Highlight bar gives me a HUGE elliptical area when I'm just trying to highlight a word or two

[StevieWonder787]

Ok, I have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. I'm trying to highlight a short sentence or even just a word in a PDF. When I take the cursor over what I want to highlight, I get this oval shape, covering like 10 lines. It's HUGE. How can I make it highlight just the one area on the file? And sometimes it becomes a combo of shapes and sizes

How do I fix this? Where do I go to change the height of this thing and make it just cover the selected text? 

[Amal.]

Hi StevieWonder

We are sorry for the trouble. As described the highlight tool cursor changes to oval shape covering like 10 lines.

Is this a scanned PDF document without any real text? If yes, you can use Acrobat to recognize text in previously scanned documents that have already been converted to PDF. Optical character recognition (OCR) software enables you to search, correct, and copy the text in a scanned PDF.

Please run the 'Scan and OCR' tool and try to recognize text in the PDF. Go to Tools > Sacn and OCR > Recognize Text > In this file and then try to highlight the text using the Comment Tool.

For more information please refer to the steps provided in the help article https://helpx.adobe.com/in/acrobat/using/scan-documents-pdf.html#recognize_text_in_scanned_documents

Let us know how it goes.

Regards

Amal

[Greg Scher]

I upgraded from Acrobat 9 Pro to Acrobat 2020 Pro, and I wish I had never wasted my time or money. Acrobat 2020 is extremely user UNfriendly. My most recent and recurring issue is that regardless of whether I download or scan a document, I run the "Scan/OCR" tool and then try to select various words, sentences, or paragraphs, the selection selects an entire block of text that is completely unrelated but within the bounding box identified. This happens no matter if the bounding box is turned on or off. How do I get the selection tool to ONLY select what I want and not what Acrobat wants? In the test document below, I tried to highlight ONLY the first four words of the last sentence of paragraph 5. Please help me with this infuriating thing!

[Bernd Alheit]

I don't have the issue when I create the document.

[Greg Scher]

That's because your Adobe Acrobat is working as it should. I didn't ask how many people it is working for. I asked for help fixing the problem that the original poster and myself are having!

[Bernd Alheit]

• Export the page as TIFF file
• Open the TIFF file in Adobe Acrobat
• Run OCR on it

[Greg Scher]

Are you telling me that the only way that I can get this piece of crap Acrobat Pro 2020 to work properly is to first convert every document to the TIFF format and then run OCR on it??? That's not going to work for me. I paid for a fully functional Acrobat 2020 Pro and not something that I have to patch together, wasting time with extra steps to make it work when most people don't. My previous versions never required this step, and this 2020 Pro version didn't require it initially. It was only after one of the Adobe updates that this issue started, and I do not know which update it was.

Give me a real fix or send me a different version of Acrobat Pro with a license key and I'll delete my Acrobat 2020 Pro and use the version you send to me.

[Bernd Alheit]

How have you created the file in Adobe Acrobat?

[Bernd Alheit]

> That's not going to work for me.

Does you get any error message?

[RoxieLu]

Thanks, Bernd.  That worked for me perfectly.  I'll try the print option "Save as PDF" next time since I later read that as a simpler option, but yours worked.  

[Greg Scher]

Amal:

I also wanted to add that the link you provided for the OP to use does nothing to correct the situation that either he or I are reporting. Please help, or at a bare minimum, escalate this issue to an upper-level tech to look into.

Thank you.

Greg Scher

[Amal.]

Hi Greg

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check.

Also, make sure you have the recent version of the Acrobat 2020 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Please share the PDF file in question so that we can check it at our end.

Regards

Amal

[Greg Scher]

Amal:

Thank you for your response. I think that I may have stumbled upon the cause of the issue...

I believe that Acrobat may have some compatibility issues with Windows 11 Pro. I just discovered that if I use the Windows "download" feature to acquire a PDF, Acrobat processes it correctly and without any issues. However, if there is a web page or document that I want and I save it by using the "print to PDF" feature, then the PDF created displays correctly but will not allow the rest of the Acrobat features to process it accurately.

What can I do to get the Acrobat feature of "print to PDF" to work correctly with my Windows 11 Pro?

Whew. Thanks for whatever you come up with.

Greg

[Bernd Alheit]

What browser does you use when you print to PDF?

[Greg Scher]

Bernd:

I generally use Chrome to do most of my research, navigation, and downloading. I use MS Edge for all of the junk crap like Facebook and Instagram. I also have Firefox as a backup when a website has an issue with Chrome, but I don't recall ever downloading anything through Firefox.

Greg

[Bernd Alheit]

I have seen this issue when using Chrome.

Try a other browser.

[Greg Scher]

Bernd:

I found the fix for it by selecting the "Save as PDF" in the print dialog box instead of using any other Adobe PDF options that may appear. That corrected the issue. I have attached a screenshot for you to see what my options were.

Greg

[Greg Scher]

Amal:

We found the fix for the problem yesterday. The help pages were of no use and that is why I came to this forum in the first place.

Thank you.

[ladyhenry]

Thank you.  I was having this issue and the Save as PDF worked!!!!

[Greg Scher]

I am glad I could help. Adobe was of no use.

[Amal.]

Hi Greg

Please go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-acrobat-pdfmaker-problems-office.html and see if that works.

Regards

Amal

[radzmar]

This is a user-to-user-forum not the Adobe support. If you think you have found a bug, please use the official way to report it. https://acrobat.uservoice.com

However I guess the problem is this PDF itself. If you select a text the highlighted area is already very huge. There seems to be something wrong with the font used in this PDF. Its actual height is much more that it appears to be on the screen. That's why the commented area is also that big. 

[kayla26230859obqi]

I'm having the same exact problem and have tried all of the fixes above. It is not a problem with the file, it happens in all of my files. OCR scan does not help and I'm unable to highlight or find anything without the large circle highlighting irrelevant areas of the doc. When I go to the link for the "official" way to report it just leads be back to another forum to read htrough and post. Very frsutrating, my Adobe is useless. 

[Greg Scher]

Kayla:

The ONLY feature that you can use to make your PDF documents work with the new Acrobat is the "Save as PDF" command. The print to PDF will leave you with the same issues you are having now. I had to figure this out for myself because the new and improved version of Acrobat is not user-friendly at all.

Greg

[Amal.]

Hi @Greg Scher 

We are sorry to hear that.

Please share the version of the OS and the Acrobat DC you are using. Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs Please try with a different PDF file and check.

Also Please run the 'Scan and OCR' tool and try to recognize text in the PDF. Go to Tools > Sacn and OCR > Recognize Text > In this file and then try to highlight the text using the Comment Tool and see if that works for you.

Regards

Amal