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Question

background tool not working in Adobe Acrobat Pro

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
August 3, 2018
7 replies
7762 views

For the last several months, I have been unable to add a background to my documents. I file briefs in court and need to add a simple color background to the cover of the brief. I was doing this last year without any problem. Now, it's malfunctioning.

If I go into Tools and change the color of the page, the program recognizes that I've added a background, and warns me about changing or updating it, but the color doesn't show.

If I go into preferences, I CAN change the background color, but that changes the background color for ALL pages in ALL files. That's obviously not what I'm trying to do.

I'm running Adobe Acrobat Pro 11.0.23 on a Mac running OS 10.13.6.

This has been going on for months, thus through many software updates and reboots.

I'd be grateful for suggestions.

General troubleshooting

This topic has been closed for replies.

T

themrgshow

Participant

I was having the same problem. Someone below mentioned a white background "on all PDFs." To test this, I imported an image and sent it to the back. It disappeared when sent to the back telling me that there was indeed a something covering it. I switched to Edit mode, clicked on the background and pressed delete. This fixed the problem. It seems there was a white rectangle covering the entire page.

S

smc@uaz

Participant

THIS. @themrgshow gave the most succinct and clear answer. I was finally able to get my background colors to work again. Thank you.

B

BillyTBoy

Participant

Just FYI. I had the same issue. Its when you convert a Word Document to PDF and have selected a background color for the page under the Design Menu in Microsoft Word; if you had a colour selected, 'Even white' - the conversion to PDF will create a white background in the PDF file. What you need to do is select no page background color in Microsoft Word first and then convert, you won't have issues with invisible backgrounds in Acrobat then. Simples... once you work it out... after many frustrating hours!!

D

dogdaysAuthor

Participating Frequently

Jane solved this for me offline.

It is a workaround -- a workaround that shouldn't be necessary if the tools were working as they're supposed to -- but a workaround is better than nothing. By opening the editing tools and resizing the white box even a little, the color revealed itself and I just have to drag the color box back over the whole page. Not sure if that's entirely clear, as the workaround didn't function exactly the same for me on my Mac as it did for Jane on her PC, but I'm all set.

Thanks very much to everyone for chiming in.

Cara

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

You can have a big white box on the page. This is a background but is not known to the background tool. You’re probably stuck with it.

jane-e

Community Expert

If TSN's theory is true, then putting an image in as per my earlier instructions, sizing it half or so of the page and sending it to the back, should put the new image behind the "white" image. You could then bring it forward. You might also be able to go into Edit mode and delete any white box.

What package was the cover page created in?

I would be happy to take a quick look at the cover page if you want me to.

D

dogdaysAuthor

Participating Frequently

I appreciate that folks have responded, but you've all ignored the starting point: I used this tool, with this same computer/app set up, with little in the way of hitches up til a few months before. These workarounds are all ignoring that. I shouldn't have to twist myself into shapes in order to make a basic Adobe Pro tool function the way it should and has in the past.

As for Jane-e's suggestion of creating a color file -- again, that's a weird workaround for something that's worked in the past. But I don't use Photoshop and I don't have Microsoft Paint, nor, I don't think, any default Mac graphic product.

I create my docs in both Word and Pages. If it's in Word, I SAVE AS a PDF. If it's in Pages, I EXPORT as PDF. The doc I've been working with the last few days is one exported from Pages.

I've run into this same issue both ways in the last several months, but I've been leaning more heavily on Pages lately so I just ran a test with both programs and did see something strange:

When I create a PDF from Word, I can see the background color while I'm in the dialogue box, and it prints out with color but it's NOT visible on the screen. I've just toggled the appearance settings multiple times with no effect.

When I create a PDF from Pages, I can't see the background color while I'm in the dialogue box, it does NOT print out with color and it's NOT visible on the screen despite toggling the appearance settings at all.

So that's useful info, and although I'm pretty sure it worked in the past with PDFs exported from Pages, if necessary, I'll export from Pages to Word to PDF.

But I'm still stuck: If the background doesn't show on the screen, it's of no use to me. The whole reason I've used the tool is so that e-filed briefs are color coded for the court and judges. They get so many briefs and are now reading most briefs on iPads. It's really useful to know what you're reading from the color on the cover.

(And I'd add that briefs that I color coded last year this way still open with the color intact and visible on the screen).

Thanks.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

I think my theory is holding up.

D

dogdaysAuthor

Participating Frequently

No, I'm afraid you're wrong. I have added and cleared multiple backgrounds in an attempt to get this to work. Just now, I started from scratch. I tried to "remove" background and it tells me repeatedly that there's no background to remove. The dialogue box is a fresh attempt to apply a new, first background.

D

dogdaysAuthor

Participating Frequently

Here's a screen shot. See anything here that might explain things?

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Some PDF files have a completely opaque solid background already. You can add another background behind that, but you won't see any difference.

jane-e

Community Expert

When you go into Preferences > Accessibility > Replace Document Colors, you are only changing the view on your computer. It changes all documents because it is for people who have vision problems. It won't print and it won't show up on other computers.

Tools > Background > From Color is working for me. Check your settings in Appearance, specifically the Opacity. If it is zero, then it would not show. That's the first place to look.

Also check your Appearance Options

D

dogdaysAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. Opacity was also one of the first things I tried, too. The default appears to be 100%. I've toggled it multiple times, in all directions and still nothing.

jane-e

Community Expert

Can you share a screen shot of your Background dialog box? Maybe something can be spotted.

Opacity and Appearance Options were most likely, so I had to ask about those first!

If we can't get it to work, I just tried this method. See if it works for you:

I made a low quality solid color jpeg. I used Photoshop, but you could use Microsoft Paint.
Right-click your cover page > Add Image (one of several methods) > select your jpeg
Move and size it. I made it just larger than the page so I can select it easily
Right-click > Arrange > Send to Back

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