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2

How do I highlight text without creating a comment?

Explorer ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

I'm trying to highlight selected text of an existing document. However, when I do this, Acrobat DC Pro automatically creates a comment. I want to highlight text without creating a comment. How do I do this?

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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Community Expert ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

You can‘t. Highlighting IS a comment. But you can flatten it. Document Geek: Flattenizer Script for Adobe PDFs

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New Here ,
Dec 07, 2021 Dec 07, 2021

I tried this but the problem is that all the highlighting in the file is then removed as well. So while the highlight comments are gone, so is the actual highlighting in the file.

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New Here ,
Nov 09, 2022 Nov 09, 2022

Yes Filter>Type>Sticky Note (aka comment) worked for me too.  Much simpler than using checkmarks.

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New Here ,
Nov 09, 2022 Nov 09, 2022

...and...the filter has to be reapplied to hide any new highlights. 

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New Here ,
Oct 07, 2020 Oct 07, 2020
I also have that same complaint.
I just want to highlight with color, part of the text without creating comments and being able to upload this file to Drive for example, without comment boxes appearing on the side.
It is very irritating that no viewer and pdf editor does this.
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Community Expert ,
Oct 07, 2020 Oct 07, 2020

If you change the application's preferences (Edit - Prefs. - Commenting) to disable create new pop-ups aligned with the edge of the document and to copy the selected text into the highlight it will work as you've described. You can also flatten the file after highlighting it to get rid of all the comment pop-ups once and for all.

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New Here ,
Dec 12, 2020 Dec 12, 2020

THIS WORKS - do as Kesya0D45 says!

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 15, 2022 Nov 15, 2022

This worked perfectly.

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New Here ,
Dec 04, 2024 Dec 04, 2024

My issue is that I do not want the recipient of my form to see the empty comment boxes.... say, when the pdf is opened in a browser.  The Commenting setting above does not do the trick, and though the Preflight trick removes the empty comments assiciated with the highlight, it also removes the remaining signature fields that I need folks to complete.  

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Community Expert ,
Dec 04, 2024 Dec 04, 2024

Set the fields as hidden (or non-printing), then run this code:

 

this.flattenPages({nNonPrint: 1});

 

You can change them back afterwards.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 13, 2020 Dec 13, 2020

There is an Acrobat solution, use this Preflight fixup, which will convert the highlighted text to normal page content. Tools> Print Production> Preflight> Fixups.

Flatten annotations.png

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New Here ,
Feb 06, 2021 Feb 06, 2021

The issue is that if you highlight and create a comment you cannot then highlight part of that text to the clipboard. DAFT! WHY?

 

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New Here ,
Jun 15, 2025 Jun 15, 2025

to avoid comment boxes while highlighting, is to open the document after all the highlighting is done in microsoft edge and saving it again gets rid of the comment box.

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