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Question

can't copy and paste text from pdf docs

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
November 23, 2015
8 replies
73462 views

Since upgrading to Acrobat DC I can no longer copy and paste text from pdf documents. Instead I get squares instead of characters. Anybody else experiencing this?

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Joy007

New Participant

Go to Preference -> General
1. Check - Make Hand tool select text & images
2. Uncheck - Make Hand tool read articles

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Adam21839523k82h

New Participant

@Joy007 Brilliant. Now I can even copy text from signed documents. Absolutely brilliant. Thank you.

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ruchikab89561548

New Participant

I also facing same problem but with some pdf file how i can overcome from this problem. Please help because i have some important pdf file which i want to printout

Thanks in advance

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Test Screen Name

Brainiac

Well, to do it with Adobe software you need to buy or subscribe to Acrobat. SOME scanners come with softwate that can do this, but you can’t assume so. In other software this might be called “OCR” or “optical character recognition”. Check the documentation for the scanning software If you don’t want to buy Acrobat.

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Test Screen Name

Brainiac

A PDF with only pictures is often exactly what people want. Nothing wrong with it, except it doesn't fit your intended use.

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ep2014

Participating Frequently

I am in charge of telling him what to do, so why can't you just tell me how to get him to scan it into a PDF so I can copy the text?

Bernd Alheit

Adobe Expert

This question was already answered.

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ep2014

Participating Frequently

So I also can't copy text from a PDF & it does NOT say "Secured" in the file name, & it also says "Allowed" in the PDF Securities for copying text, so what gives???

This has nothing to do with characters because I can't even highlight to copy, so forget about pasting.

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Test Screen Name

Brainiac

You’re allowed to copy text but there must be text to copy. Sounds as if it is, instead, a picture of text, such as a scan. By the way no current version of Acrobat shows “secured” in the file name. Only obsolete versions did that.

try67

Adobe Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Test+Screen+Name wrote
By the way no current version of Acrobat shows “secured” in the file name. Only obsolete versions did that.

Seriously? It doesn't show "(SECURED)" in the window title any more?

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vostap

New Participant

I have Adobe Acrobat 2015 (Mac v.) and I now know the new way to get the select cursor.

However, when a pdf is viewed in a browser (Safari, maybe others), for example, in Google Books, with Acrobat as the default, I no longer see a way of copy and pasting now that I have Adobe Acrobat 2015 installed.

The pointer symbol that allows converting to the cursor when viewing a pdf does not show up when viewing in a browser.

carolineg78099712

New Participant

So on a whim, I opened the pdf and right clicked to Print. From the Print preview box, I was able to copy and paste the text. Huzzah! Weird workaround.