Text in Comments box shrinks to unreadable size

[Juan Cano]

I get a PDF with comments, and sometimes I can't highlight the edit, but I can if I double-click. For a year now at least, if I double-click a Comment, the size of the text shrinks to nearly unreadable sizes.

Is this a setting I can change?? See images. I have been using Acrobat since the earth was flat and this is extra PITA.

[Juan Cano]

So in the Preferences, if I bump the Comments text size to a gaudy 18pts, when I double click the text is an adequate 10pts or so. So not fixed but not as horrible.

BTW, on a Macbook Pro, running OSX 11.5.2 with latest of Acrobat Pro DC 2021.005.20058

[Amal.]

Hi Juan Cano

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble. As described the text in the comment box shrinks on double click.

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

Also, a new release for Adobe Acrobat/Reader DC is now available, version 21.07.20091. Please update the application from the Help menu > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

You may also try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-defau... and see if that works.

Also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights or enable the root account in Mac and try using the application there.

Regards

Amal

[Juan Cano]

It happens with all PDFs and has been happening for close to a year. Will update to the latest version today but I do not think that will solve it. 

[Document Geek]

Open the highly useful and sadly abandoned Properties Panel (Cmd/Ctrl + E). 

Open your pop up note and select your text. Click the fourth button in until it is the size you want.

While the comment text in the Comments pane appears to be set by the aforemention preference, you can manually change the font settings using the Properties panel. Then when you double click the text in the Cmmants pane, the font will go back to the size as set by any changes to in the Properties panel.

I think the best way to deal with it would be to have @try67 write a short script to change the font properties of each comment to whatever you want them to be. That way, you can set the overall font size using the Preference, but the font size when double clicked will be appropriate as well. 

You'd think they'd autoamtically match, but well...

[try67]

I was summoned... You can use this code to change the font size of all pop-up text comments in your file to the value defined in the first line:

var newTextSize = 15;
this.syncAnnotScan();
var annots = this.getAnnots();
if (annots!=null) {
	for (var i in annots) {
		var annot = annots[i];
		if (annot.type=="Text") {
			var annotContents = annot.richContents;
			for (var j in annotContents) annotContents[j].textSize = newTextSize;
			annot.setProps({richContents: annotContents});
		}
	}
}

You can run this code from the JS Console or even a button.

[Juan Cano]

Can you break it down to idiot level for me? Don't know what a JS console is. 

[Juan Cano]

Hmmm. I can't see the font size when I click on the Properties window. I can change colors, opacity, insert some funky icons which not sure what they do and see the author's name. 

[try67]

This is a different kind of comment. We thought you were talking about a pop-up comment.

However, my code will still work, you just have to change it a bit. Use this version:

var newTextSize = 15;
this.syncAnnotScan();
var annots = this.getAnnots();
if (annots!=null) {
	for (var i in annots) {
		var annot = annots[i];
		if (annot.type!="Sound" && annot.type!="FileAttachment") {
			var annotContents = annot.richContents;
			for (var j in annotContents) annotContents[j].textSize = newTextSize;
			annot.setProps({richContents: annotContents});
		}
	}
}

To run it from the JS Console do the following (this is for Windows):

-Copy the code from above.

-In Acrobat, press Ctrl+J to open the Console window.

-In the lower part of that window there's a text area field with some default text in it.

Click into that field and select all the text. Paste the code over that text.

- Select the full code using the mouse or keyboard and press Ctrl+Enter to run it.

[arvindy]

Hi,

This is an old behaviour on Mac machines when you double click to edit a comment.

Please note that you do not need to double click the comment if you want to select the comment texts, first click on the comment in RHP and then you can select the comment texts just by dragging the cursor.

If you want to increase the text size in edit mode, you can use the JS snippet sent by @try67 OR follow below steps to do it from UI,

• Select a comment on a page
• Right click and then select "Open Pop-Up Note"
• Select all the texts in the po-pup note and then press keys "cmd+e" to open Pop-Up Text Properties dialog
• Click on TT icon on the properties dialog box to increase text size. You can view the screen recording of these steps at: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:36c691b1-412e-41fc-a85c-9638ab1e5477 

I hope it helps.

Regards,

Arvind