Can't select block of text

[lindad34092833]

I have updated to Adobe Acrobat DC and can no longer select blocks of text in pdfs. I have the select tool active, I am trying to select a whole sentence to highlight. I am using a pdf in which I have previously been able to perform this function. I am trying to place the curser at beginning of sentence and drag to the end of the sentence to select whole sentence before I highlight it.  I can no longer do this WHY? It's driving me mad.

Hoping someone can help

[AlkisPis]

@ls_rbls, it is happening esp. to this PDF. (Maybe to some other too.)  Normally there's no problem in text selecting, highlightng etc.

(PDFs in which the text is stored as image(s) are of course excluded.)

[AlkisPis]

(Excluded of course are also those PDFs that are locked, have security restrictions., etc. My PDF in question doesn't have any.) 

[AlkisPis]

I attach the PDF in question itself.
It is a little big. If there's some problem, you can created at your place by printing  ChatterBot: Build a Chatbot With Python – Real Python to file as I did.

[AlkisPis]

@ls_rbls, I just uploaded the PDF file in question.

[Mary33436762c6z4]

Your solution worked!!  Thank you so much!

[AlkisPis]

How is this the correct answer? It has been repeatedly reported that unchecking this box doesn't work; it's useless! 👎 

[Kelly-Ann37948028dxnl]

This worked for me. Thank you so much! 

[Eugenefindit]

Oh my goodness. So glad I found your comment. That really helped a lot. Thanks.

[aude_5662]

Excellent, thanks a lot! I lost a lot of time with this bug today. I am grateful for the solution.

[sebenas29547751]

What a time saver!!!!!  Thank you so much!!

[Vivacious_portfolio7675]

Confirming that a version of this solution still works in 2025 lol

[kochikkaran]

Hi

I know this a late post but today I got the solution. If we apply through the edistrictit website report received in .do format. do

1     download the file

2     open it in adob reader

then you can select it

[Eurocanvas]

@jonk29052914 JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA that fixed my issue, been frustrated with it for months !

Hahahaha, thanks !

[arose107]

Tried all of the suggestions in this thread.

Weiord thing is, I can copy and paste from the Table of Contents, but after that, get the blue cpature block.
Also, I can't search for key words in teh document beyond the Table of Contents.
Feel like giving up on gthis, but i can't, because I ahve to send the doc to customers

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

Have you been able to verify if there's a duplicate of a thumbnailed page.

Open the thumbnail viewer pane and scroll down to check for unnecessary thumbnailed pages that might've been automatically created when the original document was converted to PDF.

If you  spot a duplicate thumbnail of a page with the blue capture block  delete it.

OR, when you get a blue capture block , right-click on it and choose to send backward or delete it.

It would be better if you share a screenshot of what you see on your end, and also go to document properties and see what was the source document created with.

It is possible that the source PDF document could've been created with InDesign.

[sagarajmera1994]

after not found any solution ,i had uninstall adobe and install foxit but stuck with same problem there ......not seems software problem 

[ElzNin]

it's not working to me. I followed your steps but still can't select text. when I drag it and copy then paste it becomes image. Please help

[Curve]

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou jonk.  You absolute star!  I've been getting so frustrated with this, as your clearly were.  Nothing fixed it - until your solution.  Why on earth does the default setting prevent you from highlighting text...?

[Manuquick]

Does not work for me. I installed Reader DC, because I had the same issue withe the incorporated PDF viewer in Edge.Is the installation  of Edge the cause ?

[ls_rbls]

It shouldn't be but in the case of using MS Windows,  I've read many many times in these forums that Microsoft has been sabotaging the ability for the users to be able change the default  PDF viewer/handler to Adobe Acrobat. 

Also, in my very personal opinion and observation about this, it seems like Acrobat only provides integration with Internet Explorer 11. All the internet zones that are used in MS Windows are taken from the Internet Explorer browser, which in turn are also used by the Adobe Acrobat.

This is a problem since Internet Explorer 11 is being phased out or not even supported by many websites out there that have switch to Mozzilla  and Chrome based  web browser engines.

As a matter of fact a lot of problems disappear if you at install the new Microsoft Edge web browser, which is Chrome based (or just stick to Chrome browser).

That said, however, the Acrobat PDF-Maker extension doesn't integrate as well in this new Edge browser as it would with Mozzilla Firefox or Internet Explorer which are fully supported by Adobe and provide just a few more extra features that are not found when this extension is installed in other supported modern web browsers.

Like I said, these are my very personal notes, not necessarily  a fact, but it is worth to  continue trying different approaches.

And to complement the correct answer above by jonk, the key thing here is that this topic can continue to get really complicated if you go into  other un-related issues to the main topic in this thread.

For eample,  sandboxinng, enabling or disabling Protected View, Protected Mode at startup, and Security (Enhanced) preferences, together with the Trust Manager preferences, running a browsing process in containerized 32 bit apps,or choosing to enable or not 64 bit Enhanced Protected Mode in Internet Explorer, etc. etc.   etc. are things to keep an eye on.  This is true in environments where users need to access a MS Windows domain via DFS.

If you read more on this particular topic here in the forums you will discover that this is a serious issue that could be  traced all the way back to 2012, specially in environments where different versions  MS Windows Servers enforce Group Policies on Acrobat and Reader applications in such domains;  users are reporting back to the forums complaining about getting stuck with being able to open only a file at a time (or not at all); probably  because of  how this built-in security was design from its origins and almost 10 years later looks more like a real bug that hasn't been addressed in any update(s) since then.

[Manuquick]

Thank you for the answer, but it happens when I open a local file with the reader. Windows is not connected to a domain or group...

[ls_rbls]

That is interesting.

Would mind sharing briefly  what troublshooting have you tried so far? And also, can you confirm if this is happening with every PDFs or just certain ones?

Assuming that both versions of Acrobat and Reader are updated to the latest, It would be good to compare the Preferences settings of both Acrobat and Reader side by side, and see if something could be related to a particular setting that need to be disabled or enabled in Acrobat.  

OR,

 try in another computer with  Acrobat  (like a laptop) and try to open one of those PDFs from your computer in that other computer with Acrobat and see if the same problem occur.

These are just suggestions to try and narrow down what could be the issue. I'm in the blind here so I'm only guessing. 

[Maria R]

I have had this same problem where you hit <Ctrl><A> and all should be selected, but it is not.

What I had to do is to format the created PDF to Portrait, then it worked.  For some reason Landscape made the selection fail.  

[ls_rbls]

I think that particular problem has to do with localization, keyboard,  and/or,  (possibly) regional settings, which are all  handled at the operating system level (not through the Acrobat application).

Now, have you tested the Ctrl+A keyboard combnation with other applications and observed the same behavior?   Is this happening in MS Windows 10?

I specifically ask about MS Windows 10 because of these settings (see slides below):

Sorry about the notes in French I am reusing a slide that I prepared for another community user.

When you deselct that checkbox you may be required to log off , then log back in , or restart the computer for these setting to take effect.

[Sidrah5C77]

Thank you so much Jonk!! I tried everything, even bought a new Adobe membership, and the only thing that worked what was you just suggested. You are a saviour! Thank you!