New Participant

Question

Object tools are all greyed out

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
November 3, 2016
25 replies
143962 views

Hi I hae Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, and I am trying to edit things such as bring object to back or front, but the OBJECTS menu on the right side are all greyed out. I thought I have encountered this a while ago and I remember going to the preferences menu to check or uncheck something. But I cant seem to remember how I did this before. Any help is greatly appreciated. Its driving me nuts.

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A

aprilk31527202

Known Participant

Hello,

I have had multiple instances where I wanted to quickly edit a PDF in Acrobat... and it has never worked properly. Most of the time, the editing tools are greyed out. For instance, I scanned in a receipt and I want to crop the image - the tool (selected from the top bar) shows a bounding box but doesn't crop. The crop function on the sidebar is completely greyed out along with all the other functions... and I don't know why. (And no, these are not password-protected / otherwise uneditable documents.)

Before, I wanted to quickly censor / anonymize information on a document with a few black rectangles, or add text comments beside objects. - All typical things that should be working great with the Acrobat editing tools, but NOTHING worked.. It has just been a frustration.

Can you please tell me why this is happening? I've had older versions of Acrobat DC that worked fine in the past. - I'd like to use these useful tools on the fly as I need them, but up until this point nothing works as expected.

(As far as I can tell, the other features of Acrobat are working fine.)

Thank you in advance for your help.

Harsh Vardhan Pareek

Community Manager

Hi @aprilk31527202

Hope you are doing well.

As mentioned that you are unable to edit because the tools are greyed out. Here is a discussion link for a similar issue, kindly follow the troubleshooting steps provided there.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/object-tools-are-all-greyed-out/td-p/10647904

If you still face the issue, kindly provide us few details:

1. Is it happening with a particular file or with all PDFs?

2. If possible, please provide us with some screenshots and a file with the issue.

3. Acrobat application version?

Thanks,

Harsh

(Moving thread to Acrobat DC board)

D

defaultu3a6ysfspzsi

New Participant

Yes, OMG! why did Adobe make this so difficult! I can use any other PDF program with no issues!

C

Chuck P. 2187

New Participant

If you have the problem I have (the markup tools are greyed out) and you don't have this mythical touch mode since you are on a PC, then here is how to get them back.

I don't know what I touched to make them go away in the first place, by the way. The file started fine and then switched.

The following steps assume that you can't just start up a blank page with everything enabled. If you can, do it.

Open a document that still has the markups enabled.

Add a blank page to it.

Extract that blank page to a folder somewhere.

Put the file you want to fix in the same folder.

Select them both and choose to Combine Selected Files in Acrobat.

Combine them. The order doesn't seem to matter.

Delete the blank page from the Binder1.pdf

Save the Binder to either the same name as your original file or another one if you want to be careful.

It now works as before, complete with markups.

J

Joanne25051259y20r

New Participant

Chuck are you still available for additional questions on Mark-up Tools. I am on a PC running Windows 10 Pro. I have all mark-up tools but polygon, connected line and cloud. I tried to find a previous mark-up version that had all tools visible and follow your instructions above. All my files are coming up with these 3 tools missing. Any suggestions. Also, I have a Wacom Cintiq as a 3rd screen. that was just installed today - could that be the issue? Please advise and thank you.

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ANNABEL262204455osg

New Participant

When combining files untick the option (combining files option) to save as portfolio pdf this will then bring the tools menu back (not greyed out) after combining files

santhoshr29800103

Known Participant

Hi,

There is a major issue found in Acrobat Professional Xi, DC and Reader Xi and DC. When i opened the PDF it showed only 1 comment. But the PDF has 700 + marked comments . When i page down each page one by one then only the rest are viewed. Please advise what is the problem why all the comments are not viewed immediately at the time of opening pdf.

Thanks,

Santhosh

santhoshr29800103

Known Participant

Please find the file for your testing.

Wole_revised_corrections.pdf

E

Eliza5F90

New Participant

I had to switch from the "edit pdf" tool to the "prepare forms" tool in order to remove some checkboxes and the objects menu came back for me.

E

EdynM

New Participant

I have a pdf of a textbook that I have highlighted and commented on. However, when I go to save the pdf, it gives me this error message:

The document could not be saved. There was a problem reading this document (110).

I don't know how to fix it, and I cannot save the textbook pdf without solving this error. Please help

Reading_the_Middle_Ages-_-,_From_c-_300_to_c-_1150-_(z-lib-org).pdf

AkanchhaS8194121

Brainiac

Hi Edyn,

Sorry to hear about your experience.

This error, generally appears when document has been corrupted or The ‘The Document Could Not Be Saved (110)’ error occurs on Acrobat Reader when the user tries to save a particular file conventionally or via the Save as a feature.

This issue occurs with files obtained externally. In this case, the issue can be resolved easily by recreating the file to avoid the irrelevant data. There are a few ways to try-

1- If this document was downloaded from web or email. Then get it downloaded again and save a new copy

2- Open Acrobat>File>Print>print to "Adobe PDF">Save as new file [Only Acrobat]

3- For Acrobat Reader users:

Open the Acrobat Reader application, then open the file that you’re encountering the issue with.
Once the file is open in Acrobat Reader, use the ribbon bar at the top to select File > Print from the newly appeared context menu.
After you manage to get inside the Print menu, use the drop-down menu associated with Printer and set it to Microsoft Print to PDF.
Next, ensure that the toggle under Pages to Print is set to All> Print
When prompted by the Save Print Output As window, select an appropriate location and ensure that the Save as type is set to PDF document.
Click Save to complete the operation.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Akanchha

D

default5hp6laagy3x1

New Participant

I tried printing to pdf (microsoft to pdf), but it claims it cannot be printed. I have repaired the installation, I have updated, and also disabled the advanced security. Still I cannot save it. I would appreciate the help. Every pdf that I know.. locks this way after using it like a book and highligting on it.

B

Bramreem

Participating Frequently

Hello,

Sometimes an object in a pdf file is designated as an artefact, but it shouldn’t be. It should be a ‘normal’ object because it would have meaning for the all readers, including people with a speech or braille tool, especially when I would add an alternative text. The situation can be a result of the conversion from the source program, or I have marked an object as an artefact and later regret it.

Now I have difficulties changing those objects and making them available to users of accessibility tools. In the Content panel, I can click on those items and choose ‘remove Artifact’. After that, it is shown in that panel as a ‘normal’ object. However, in its window, all fields are greyed out. The former artefacts don’t show up in the Tags panel either (which was the whole point of the change).

So designating an object as an artefact looks like a one-way change. Does somebody know how to make it a two-way action?

Best regards,

Bram

B

Bramreem

Participating Frequently

Hello,

Thank you all for your answers. It took some time (and some more to get back at this thread), but I’ve also found a solution: the ‘Find element’ command. With the option “Find Unmarked Content” or the default option “Find Artifacts” (it depends on the situation which one works best). After finding the intended element, choose ‘Tag element’ and Acrobat will create a new tag.

The ‘Find element’ command can be called both in the Content or Codes panel, but the last one is the best choice because that way the new tag will be approximately at the right place in the tags list. Doing it from the Content panel will add the new tag at the very end of the list.

Still annoying is that Acrobat will wander through all artifacts of untagged content on the page, also the ones that really need to be artifacts. There should be an easier way to achieve the goal: ‘removal’ of the artifact status should have the extra effect of adding a tag for the element.

Note that I tried ‘Remove Artifact’ because this was the only option to ‘undo artifacts’ which is easy to find. It does not mean that the object itself is removed. The name of this command is a little confusing. The basic meaning is that the artifact status of the object is removed. The element itself in the content panel is not touched.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Brainiac

Do you mean the Tags panel, instead of the Codes panel?

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

A

Anonymous

Hi,

So, what is an object?

If I use the select objects tool then click on the text or image the Align Objects Tool is not active.

Nothing works to make it or the Align Objects tool active.

I can use the Arrange Object when using edit text images.

Thank you.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Select two or more objects.

B

bree510

New Participant

I've had this issue for a while and just stumbled upon a solution by accident. For objects to be available, you have to close out all documents from adobe except the 1 current document you're trying to edit. This worked for me. Hope this helps you too.

G

gstuart1

New Participant

BritD1, it did not work for me. Only one PDF was open but the Format and Objects menus are grayed out. However, "Edit" on the top menu bar allowed me to add text. Can anyone assist on this?

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

The Format menu is active when you select text.

The Objects menu is active when you select an image.

Eric Dumas

Community Expert

Hi,

can you confirm the operating system you are using and include screenshots.

Can you look at the properties (File>Document Properties or Ctrl+D on Windows or CMD+D on Mac).

It might give you information in the Security tab about the document being locked

G

Green_TaraAuthor

New Participant

Hi Eric, thanks for helping. I am using windows 10. I looked in the properties and everything is allowed for the document, there does not seem to be any restrictions. I have attached the screenshot. As you can see on the right panel, everything is greyed out. I am most interested in the Objects section. Thanks.

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