Highlight tool is not working in Acrobat Pro DC

[StewartWeb]

I recently installed the recent Adobe Pro DC updates. A simple yellow highlighting feature used over the years is now seemingly impossible. When clicking the highlighter, the text areas show myriad border lines and when I try to put the cursor in front of text I want to highlight, huge blocks of asymmetrical shapes are highlight in yellow instead of just the word or sentence I am wanting to highlight.

I am also finding other simple edit functions are not working properly.

Please advise.

Douglas Stewart

[Personal info removed by Mod: Email]

[AW-UNAK685]

This HIGHLIGHTER TOOL ISSUE is BEYOND FRUSTRATING!    I've been using Acrobat XI for years &then suddenly the Highlighter tool began making large oval blobs on my PDF's.  I looked for solutions for months &  finally decided to try the trial version of Acrobat PRO DC.  Same issue.  Blobs on some PDF's and not on others. SO...  today...

I Phoned Adobe Acrobat PRo Support.  The first tech did not have a clue!  He got into my computer and spent half an hour wasting my time and my satellite download time looking at the program as if it was the first time he'd ever seen it!!!   After I gently concluded the call, I went for a walk to blow off some steam & then called back.  The second Tech also had no clue!!!   Or if he did, he was unable to explain it or resolve it after another half hour in my computer and looking at several different PDF's I had in my files.

Neither of the Techs I spoke with:

A: UNDERSTOOD that there was an ONGOING ISSUE with the Highlighter tool....even tho there are hundreds of people who have asked online about it for YEARS!  

B: Could figure it out.  When the second tech got into my computer he IMMEDIATELY zoomed down into the Registry so as to" 'fix' the registry issue"  but could not clearly tell me what it was !?!   I am reluctant to ever have anyone just twist things in the registry so I asked him to stop.   Then he poked around the program but could neither explain nor 'fix' the issue. 

~~~

I just now read the April 19, 2019 reply by Kerrip___... and now I have a glimmering of an understanding about how/why SOME PDF's arrive in a 'different' PDF format... Hmmmmm.

SO... since i always save as an Adobe PDF I tried Kerrip's "SAVE AS PDF"  (a 'generic form of PDF i guess.).. and by god!  The Highlighter tool worked perfectly the first time.

HMMMMMMM...   So.... Now... one question is:  Do I have to 'RE-save' every PDF in my computer if I want to highlight it?    I've tried the OCR feature & that sometimes works to 'fix' the issue.  but basically it doesn't.

VERY SAD TO SEE THAT ADOBE IS SO SCREWED UP that it cannot even fix an issue in it's own 'SAVE AS ADOBE PDF' feature!!! 

NOW my problem is:  Do I sign up for a monthly payment to support Techs that have no clue & programmers who can't design correctly in the first place OR FIX the issues? 

I've been thru this with ADOBE Bridge and Photoshop too.  HOWEVER, now two years into a subscription & countless numbers of calls and some very 'pointed' remarks in surveys about the issues, Adobe BR seems to have been  FINALLY 'fixed'.  I am 76 years old.  Do I really want to PAY Adobe so I can waste two more years of my life converting Adobe's PDF's?  I DO want to continue to do the research I am doing & reading the papers I need to read and then... well... so.... Aargh!   There has to be an easier way!  

Otherwise, this is just a revolving suction tool... and it's my time and $ that is being extracted! 

Hmmmmm.  Any advise gratefully accepted...

[sameproblemwithhighlighteruser]

Thank you very much. This offers a ray of hope. If it works, Adobe should reward you with a job offer as a part time consultant. 🙂 I will report back.

[defaultj1lvc7d2e1s6]

Thank you for this post. I had the same issue and the save as PDF instead of Print to PDF does seem to make the difference for some reason.

[Lori W. Baldwin]

Thank you Kerip!

I realize you posted this a long time ago, but I had to say thanks because I was going crazy trying to figure out what had changed. In my work as a fact checker, I'm opening new PDFs all day long and highlighting every single one. In my search, the solution I found most often was to convert the image to text, which takes much too long. Now that I'm making sure I save instread of print, my issue is gone! What a relief!

[Jill251491266lnk]

You are an absolute genius! I was using print to cutewriter which caused the same issue for me! Your solution was amazing. I chose Microsoft print to pdf instead and I can now highlight. It's been almost a year I have been battling with this! THANK YOU!! 

[T.25365032qhp8]

SAME! So happy for thsi resolution.

[Beth24128142szns]

BRILLIANT!! Thank you for your help! This has been bugging the shot out of me for years and Adobe was no help in the solution. So YES, selectinfg "save as PDF worked!! NO MORE huge, irregular highlights. Thank you so much for posting! 

[Nakia298716080sko]

This solution worked perfectly!  Thank you so much!  

[Tara5C69]

Thank you, helped me with my problem, don't save to Adobe PDF if you want the highlighter tool to work properly.

[jsacueofbio34]

HI! I had the same problem. when I clicked on the colour 'bucket' to change the colour the opacity slide at the bottom of the colour palette was set at 0%!!! When I moved the slide towards the 100% end the colour on the highlighted text appears!! SUGGESTION: When Acrobat DC is installed the default setting for opacity is set at 100% not 0%.

[BethAM]

There are NOT two different highlighter tools.  The difference is that if the document has been OCR'd, the highlighter works in regular block text.  If the document has not been OCR'd the exact same tool is a free-form draw, that may or may not snap to a straight(er) line once you've drawn it.  If you don't want to look like you were highlighting after a few glasses of wine, just OCR your document, then highlight.  Once the document is OCR'd you'll be able to highight individual words or blocks of text in their entirety.  I have a document where some of the text OCR'd properly and some didn't, and in the same document the OCR'd portions highlight in blocks or straight lines, and the parts that didn't OCR properly (becuase someone marked over them) use the same highlighter tool in free-form (drunken) mode.

[sameproblemwithhighlighteruser]

I just bought the monthly subscription. Attorney. Working fine. Then the same problem! Worked with two adobe techs for over one hour. No solution. You would think they would be aware of this problem. Adobe says it can't help me untilo higher level techs perhaps are available on Monday. I am not a tech. This should have been solved before. I will keep researching community solutions. It would be ironic that the solution will be found here, but not from adobe techs. More than annoyed.

[TABulger]

I had no problems with highlighter tool until I purchased a new computer and I'm now on Windows 10. A solution I saw above worked! Print - do not select Adobe PDF; DO select Save as PDF. This worked.

I can't test the download file b/c of the system I'm in won't download.

Good luck.

[sameproblemwithhighlighteruser]

I am glad my suggestion was helpful to you. A higher level tech called me yesterday. I may have caused part of the problem. Apparently in taking documents from the web Never Print to PDF because that flattens the pdf and highlight won't work on a flattened document. Instead download as Adobe PDF (best) instead of print to pdf which I had been doing to fix the problem. Allegedly save is a better command than print. Also just to make sure, download again adobe pro, and be sure when Acrobat DC is installed the default setting for opacity is set at 100% not 0%.--that can bring the highlighted color back. I also like to highlight without it showing up as a comment. It used to be the old highlight feature in adobe did not have highlight show up as a comment. Usually highlight need not be something to clutter commenting column. According to tech this could not be fixed currently.

[Claire0101]

To date, Aug. 15, 2020, after reading through all of the issues, nothing has changed. No matter how I save it, the highlighting does NOT work. I don't need all their fancy tools, just the highlighter to work, go figure.

[medartist]

I just had this problem now. Very frustrating but I found the solution. The properties of the highlighterare set to 30pt thickness. So here is how you can change it to 10pt which looks normal:

Click on the highligher tool, highlight your text with that huge blob, click on the hughe blob to select it and you'll now see a blue box around your highlight with four point handles, right click the box, select "Properties" and change it from 30pt to 10pt, BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, make sure to check the box at the bottom that says "Make Properties Default" and also make sure "Locked" is unchecked.

[MomONhoJ]

That works.  Finally.  Thank you Medartist.

This really shouldn't have been so complex, Adobe...

[manuelm88303431]

THANK YOU! On my God, finally. I can't understand why Adobe Acrobat don't put that by default themselves! So many people have the problem!

[Edwards iPad]

Hi-liter still doesn't work. I get the magnifier, but no hi-liting occurs as I drag my finger along the text. What's wrong?

Why did you change the procedure? It is extremely annoying to constantly have to adapt to a new way of doing things, especially when they worked just fine.

Maybe I should seek a different PDF reader. Maybe they won't change things up, all the time. I can't over emphasize how annoying this is. I wonder if your techies just make changes to keep busy, and chuckle over our incompetence, to keep pace.

[sameproblemwithhighlighteruser]

I agree with your frustration. I finally called their technical help and got it to work. Highlighting should also not generate a separate comment. Highlighting is common enough. They make it so hard to do. Frustrating. On the other hand, there is nothing that appears to work as well as Adobe Acrobat Pro.

[Leonard5CD0]

It can't be that hard to fix the glitch which prevents highlighting and is driving your users crazy. Just fix the damn thing and put out an update rather than having the users do your work for you.

[Mama Shan]

I am experiencing the same with blobs of highlite and assymetrical shapes....what happened? This was working a few moths ago...I miss the highliter tool!

[Tim231182182cxv]

Hi,

It's 2022 and this problem is still happening. Yesterday, i could highlight pdf documents with yellow by clicking the highlight tool, selecting what I want with it, done. Highlighted. Today, doesnt work. I tried finding solutions online but only found people have this same issue... A pdf document is a pdf document, why cant Adboe fix this once and for all? Now I've spent 16 minutes trying to find what is not available - a solution. Giving up on Adobe. Sad. 

[Michelle24314305h4vd]

Make sure you are actually in an Adobe product, that your document did not open in Chrome. 

[JZybach]

I understand this is old, but my edit tool don't work. I am completely uptodate and just to check I created a test document and I can't highlight in that either.