Click text to copy to clipboard

Report · Oct 05, 2022

I want someone to be able to click certain text in a pdf and have it copy to their clipboard. Is this possible?

I have my email address in the document, and I want to make it easy for someone to click it and copy it so they can paste it in the email program of their choice to email me.

Any way to make a section of text copy to their clipboard?

Report · Oct 05, 2022

A live email link will open a new, blank email when clicked. There's no need to run it through the clipboard.

If anything, it's hard to make documents and PDFs not make web and email addresses live when you create them. It's assumed you want them converted to a live link. 🙂

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Report · Oct 05, 2022

Yeah so that's my issue. I really don't want it to open a blank email. I just want to copy the text.
If I can't make the text copyable I would rather have it do nothing than automatically open an email.

Report · Oct 05, 2022

Then leave it as plain text, and the user can cut and paste it any way they like.

I'm not clear on the difference between having it automatically copied to the clipboard "so they can paste it in the email client of their choice"... and having a click automatically paste it in a blank email that is almost certainly generated by the email client of their choice.

There may be a 'copy to clipboard' command I am not aware of, though. It can be done in HTML using Javascript. Maybe one of the PDF wizards here knows.

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Report · Oct 05, 2022

When I export it as plain text, it's automatically clickable and opens an email anyway. I assume it automatically recognizes it as an email address.

When I click on the link, it opens Apple Mail which I never use. I prefer to use a variety of email providers on my browser.

So I just want to make it as easy as possible for people who have a similar workflow to me.

Report · Oct 05, 2022

You can configure your default email program, you know.

I can't think of anyone I've ever known who used more than one email client on any given system, and had it configured as the default for convenience (including myself... and I have done some rather complex things with multi-user systems and email management), but I guess that has nothing to do with the link issue.

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Report · Oct 05, 2022

Just me I guess lol. Thanks for your help

Report · Oct 05, 2022

Well, here's the basic HTML/Javascript approach. I think it could be adapted to a PDF export.

https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_js_copy_clipboard.asp

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Report · Oct 05, 2022

I'm not sure this goes anywhere useful (and therein my lie your answer), but it's come up before:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/copy-text-to-clipboard/m-p/9382843

I figured it might be doable with (Acrobat) Javascript, but it turns out the Copy and Paste commands are not on Acrobat's menuItem whitelist. But even if they were, that might not guarantee it would work in PDF-view scenarios other than Acrobat.