Extract highlighted text from Ipad

[TS2021]

Hello, I got an iPad because I thought it would be a good way to read and takes notes on PDFs. On the computer, you can highlight text and set a preference so that the highlighted text can be copied over to the comments. However there is no such preference on the iPad app. When I try to view comments from a PDF that I highlighted using my iPad on my computer; it just says "highlighted text" without the actual text there  and the exported comment summaries all turn out blank. The highlight is still visable. Is there a way to use my iPad to highlight and have the highlighted text copied over to the comments? I aim using the adobe reader app and Adobe acrobat on a MacBook.

[Harsh Vardhan Pareek]

Hi @TS2021,

Hope you are doing well.

As mentioned that you are not able to see the highlighted text on the iPad. Would you mind sharing a few details to understand the issue better?

1. If possible, could you attach the file or some screenshots which show the issue clearly.

2. Is it happening with all PDF or with a particular?

3. Application version?

4. iOS version?

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Thanks,

Harsh

[N24050986eozn]

Hi, I'm so glad to find this thread, because I am having the same problem. Attached is a pdf with highlights in 2 colors. The yellow highlights were made on my Macbook, and you can see that the highlighted text appears in the note.

The green highlights were made in Acrobat Reader on a 2022 12.9" iPad Pro. You will see that as the initial poster described, they just say "highlighted text."

Two additional factoids that might be relevant:

1) I stopped reading pdfs on an iPad for about 2 years. Back then, Acrobat Reader was the only tablet pdf reader that did capture the text in a highlight. I tried sevearl other pdf readers but always came back to AR because of this feature. But I got a new iPad recently and now that feature seems lost in the current version of AR.

2) In Zotero, using the Zotfile extension, I can "Send to tablet", which copies the pdf to a Dropbox directory that I see on the iPad. I mark up the document and when I "Get from tablet", Zotfile extracts the annotations into a text file. It can see the highlighted text even though Reader doesn't!

Thanks in advance--I hope you can help solve this.

--Nathaniel

[After Dark Astronomy]

I would like to bump this topic back to the top. After highlighting, I have to manually write what the highlight was about or I lose it. To better understand what I am trying to see, OpenStax online viewer has a great highlighting function, it's just only online. 

[S. S]

Hi @After Dark Astronomy,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for your experience with Acrobat Reader Mobile.

The feature you mentioned above would be a great addition to our list of options. We would like to hear more about it. 

Would you mind sharing it here: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/? Filling out the form ensures that your feedback reaches our product team to review and implement the changes in the upcoming updates.

-Souvik

[nicl96337772]

Hi - I'm also looking for this feature and not finding it in the iPad app. This post is over 3 years old.

[S. S]

Hi @nicl96337772,

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

The feature is still in the pipeline for a future release.

If you have already posted about it from the above link, please share the Uservoice post link here so that other users can leave an upvote on the feature request.

The more the number of upvotes, the faster the chances of the feature coming live.

Regards,
Souvik.