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Selecting & Copying Text

Forum Index > General Acrobat Topics > Selecting & Copying Text
2010-10-15 04:27:44
markjsr
Registered: Oct 15 2010
Posts: 3
Answered

I have Acrobat Pro v. 9.4
 
For a long time I've been able to select text in most PDF documents, and to copy that text or copy as table. Suddenly, my Acrobat does not permit me to select text. What I get instead is really bizarrely shaped areas highlighted that don't correspond to text areas at all. Roughly trapezoidally shaped areas.
 
This occurs even though the PDF documents are generated at different companies, even when the PDF documents of some of these companies previously permitted me to select text and copy it.
 
Now I can't even select text at all, not for text editing, and not for copy/paste.
 
This has only happened in the last couple of weeks, and is really putting a dent in my productivity.
 
Confused,
 
Mark

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.3.1, Windows
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2010-10-15 08:54:41
#1
daka630
Expert
Registered: Mar 1 2007
Posts: 1420
Maybe a "repair" (under the Help drop-down) and an update to dot release 9.4.0 would help (?).



Be well...

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2010-10-15 10:06:18
#2
markjsr
Registered: Oct 15 2010
Posts: 3
Actually, I'm currently running 9.4 (see top of post). The post at the bottom only shows 9.3.1 because that's the most advanced option available when posting the question on the forum. I'll try the REPAIR suggestion as well.

I believe it may relate to the way that companies saved their PDF files, because the Copy/Paste still works in older PDF documents. But in documents dated in the last couple of weeks, the copy/paste doesn't work, nor will it allow me to select the text at all.

The thing that really concerns me is that the inability to select text has appeared on the PDF documents I've downloaded from several websites.

Mark
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2010-10-15 10:16:17
#3
Dimitri
Expert
Registered: Nov 1 2005
Posts: 1389
Hi markjsr,

Since you are able to copy/paste from some ducuments but not others it's possible the authors have added security that prevents it, or that the PDFs are scans that have not had OCR run so there is no text to select. For the security you can check that under File ->Properties in the Security tab.Hope this helps,

Dimitri

Dimitri Munkirs
WindJack Solutions
pdfscripting.com

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2010-10-15 23:18:59
#4
markjsr
Registered: Oct 15 2010
Posts: 3
I checked two documents...one which I could select & copy, and one which I could not. Neither document had any restrictions on security. But there were interesting differences in how the PDFs were created:
One had been created with PDF Creator 0.9.3 (editable) the other with PScript5.dll (not editable).

Both indicated the PDF Producer was GPL Ghostscript, though the versions were different. 8.54 was NOT editable, while 8.15 was.

Interesting. It doesn't appear to be security that is the problem, but the software used to produce the PDF.

The properties in the Security tab DOES help diagnose it.

Thank you.

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2011-03-12 20:54:13
#5
Sugoi
Registered: Mar 12 2011
Posts: 1
I have the same problem but there is no security on the PDF. It only allows copy and paste on certain computers that have Adobe Reader 9, but not all PC's with that version are capable of selecting text to copy and paste. It certainly does not work in Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional. Anyone know why?
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2011-10-03 10:34:58
#6
EricD
Registered: Oct 3 2011
Posts: 1
I think it is not a pb with security. The fact seems to me that the T copy functionality has been removed and replaced by a new "T to highlight" functionality, which adds a comment.

the 2 functionalities can be complementary, but the basic one is so useful I would just like to ask WHEN WILL IT BE BACK?

or maybe we can do it another way ?

thanks
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