Combining text boxes (Acrobat Pro DC 2018, PC)

[ashleyw42715064]

Hi

I've been given a pdf with a footer I need to edit. My problem is that the text seems to be in several different boxes so it's very awkward to edit. It appears like this:

When I edit the text it ends up becoming a jumbled mess. When I select I can move parts of it, so it looks like this:

So I can see that the text is different parts. The top box all seems to be one section with spaces, each bit in the text below is a different box, so it's a mess.

Is there any way I can combine this all into one text box that flows nicely and is easy to edit?

Thanks!

[Tariq Dar]

Hi  Ashleyw,

Sorry for the delay in response.

Acrobat is not an editing application primarily, but it allows users to do minor text edits. That being said I am not saying it should do what you are experiencing. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused. I would suggest converting the file to Microsoft Word format and then make required changes and convert the file back to Acrobat if that eases your workflow.

Also, I would suggest filing this experience with our product team Acrobat for Windows and Mac: New (1132 ideas) – Share your feedback on Acrobat DC  and help us with your comments.

-Tariq Dar

[ashleyw42715064 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for reply.

I've found it easiest to copy the text before going into edit mode (as this treats it as one block), then paste it in a new box and edit from there. I'm still not clear how the original problem with weird diagonally-divided text comes about, but I can now work with it.

Cheers

Ash

[Tariq Dar]

Hi Ash,

Thank you for sharing the workaround here on Adobe forums with us. I am glad you are able to get your work done.

Please feel free to share your editing experience with Acrobat using the link I provided in previous response.

-Tariq Dar

[kjn1154@gmail.com]

I tried copying and pasting as you mentioned, but it still breaks up the text into many smaller boxes.

[kjn1154@gmail.com]

I don't understand why Acrobat breaks up text boxes. I really need the text to be in one box and not several. Is there ANY WAY I can accomplish this?

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Yes. Return to the source document and its application, and create the original document correctly. Acrobat is not designed to do editing and design/layout.

[pvanstro]

This is such a garbage answer. "Adobe isn't designed to do editing". Acrobat Pro software application is CHANGING existing formatted text without the user's consent and then you have no REAL answer on how to fix it. It does this automatically whenever saving a document.

Your not providing a solution because it does this even when the document was CREATED through Acrobat. For example, if I create a text box with the letter A. Alvarez (A being the initial for the first name and Alvarez being the last name), Adobe Acrobat PRO decides to separate these into different text boxes despite being formatted originally as ONE text box. It's beyond frustrating and your excuses are not acceptable. This is lazy customer service and lazy software design.

[Meredith15A8]

I could not have said it better pvanstrom.  I'm about ready to lose my mind with this nonsense!

[piece5EC7]

What possible reason could there be for the application to create such a mess for the user?  Beyond frustrating.  Try making the application intuitive and functional.  If you are providing the functionality to create and fill text boxes....and place them in the file.......then yes, the application IS designed to do layout......because that is what such functions are called

[piece5EC7]

i have no "source document".  I am creating text boxes and filling them with text to annotate an image background that i guess, in your terms, is the "source document".  Why in the world would you develop the application to be so frustrating to use in this regard?

[defaultrb9c10xrdrb5]

I am beyond frustrated with a similar text box problem in Abobe Acrobat Reader DC.  A document created in Publisher is sent to me as a pdf. All the content in text boxes on the page is thrown off. Most of the text in each text box appears missing in the pdf. This seems to be only on my machine. If I make the pdf on my machine from the Publisher file, my copy is fine.

[pvanstro]

It's really too bad that Adobe doesn't care about their customers, nor do they care about fixing a problem that they caused when they created the program. They simply state that it's not meant to be used that way (even though that's what 90% of their paying users are using it for)

[Benjamin27884709iqms]

What? What an absurd answer. It is created properly in the original document. That is in fact the point. 

[Ben27894661n07l]

Agreed. *One helpful if not totally obvious tip: if you hold shift after clicking a text box you can select multiple text boxes and move the group together. It comes in handy when Adobe inexplicably seperates a bunch of stuff. But yea, when using MS Word is the purported "solution" to anything, it's a dark day indeed. 

[RogueSheep]

What????
It is exactly the first feature mentioned on the Acrobat Pro page on why you should buy this product:

----

Powerful features.

Get it all with Acrobat Pro, including the tools you need like edit, convert, review and sign.

-----

[RogueSheep]

So we need to buy MS Publisher, the product of the competitioner, to be able to edit documents in *your* document format properly????

[Sri Harsha29580130ls9b]

abode is garbage.! use infix pdf pro.! it can do lot of great things.! adobe is not even close to doing those. Sure it is slow and crashes sometimes, but it gets things done!