Using Guided Action Command To Mass-Delete Text

[stevie_5120]

I've set up a guided action to 'Search & Remove Text'. The specific text is identified but I now wish for it all to be deleted. The text is surrounded by red boxes.

I don't know how to proceed any further after running the command and the text highlighted in such a manner.

[try67]

Tools - Redact - Apply.

[stevie_5120]

I'm not after redacting the text. I wish for it to be deleted from the document.

[try67]

That is redacting. If you mean delete it so that the text around it re-flows and fills in the empty space, that's not possible. PDF files were not meant to be edited in such an extensive way.

[stevie_5120]

Deleting the text does not have that effect in the PDF I'm working with.

I am not after seeing "black highlighting" throughout the document in place of the text - as is the case with redacting. I am after removing the text from the document - so nothing is left in its place. Surely in this day and age this is can be done. Otherwise I am left going page by page, deleting the editable text.

[try67]

The way to do it is to export the file to another format (like Word on InDesign), make the changes there, and then create a new PDF file from it. Think of a PDF file like a printed book on newspaper. Once it's on paper you can't really move things around it in very easily, can you? This has to be done in the layout application, before creating that "final" product.

[stevie_5120]

It appears Acrobat is a poor-quality application. Even changing the redaction colour doesn't help, because the program freezes or options in the side bar suddendly disappear (literally no longer show). Acrobat won't even reopen right now, after I closed it.

[stevie_5120]

Why is what I'm asking to do so difficult to achieve in Acrobat?