How to Select and Highlight Text in Acrobat Reader
Question details
The user wants to know how to select and highlight text using the I-beam tool in Acrobat Reader, and why text selection sometimes fails.
- Product
- Acrobat Reader
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Attempting to select, highlight, or copy text from a PDF document.
- Observed behavior
- Text selection with the I-beam tool works on standard documents but fails if the PDF contains only scanned images instead of real selectable text.
Verify whether your PDF document contains actual digital text or if it is a scanned image by clicking anywhere on the page to see if a text cursor appears.
Use the Select Text Tool for Standard PDFs
Use this method for standard PDF documents that contain digitally generated, selectable text.
If your PDF was exported from a word processor or contains real text layers, the default selection tool will easily recognize the characters.
Open your document in Acrobat Reader and select the 'Select tool' (arrow icon) from the main toolbar.
Move your cursor over the text. The pointer will automatically change into an I-beam icon, indicating that the text is recognizable.
Click and drag the I-beam pointer across the desired text to select it. You can then click the highlighter icon from the pop-up menu or press Ctrl+C to copy.
Run OCR to Make Scanned PDFs Selectable
If the I-beam tool does not appear, your PDF is likely a scanned image and requires Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to become selectable.
Easily Highlight Text and Perform OCR with WPS PDF
WPS Office includes a powerful PDF editor that allows you to seamlessly select, highlight, and copy text. If you are dealing with a scanned document, WPS PDF's built-in OCR feature quickly converts images into editable and selectable text.
- 1. Open PDF in WPS Office: Launch WPS Office and open your target PDF document.
- 2. Extract Text with OCR: If the document is a scanned image, navigate to the 'Tools' tab and click 'OCR' to extract and convert the image into real text.
- 3. Select Text: Move your mouse over the text until the I-beam cursor appears, then click and drag to select.
- 4. Highlight or Copy: Click the 'Highlight' icon from the floating toolbar that appears, or use right-click to copy the text to your clipboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my cursor show a hand icon instead of the I-beam tool?
The hand icon is used for panning and scrolling around the document. To select text, you must switch to the Select tool (the standard arrow icon) in the top toolbar. It will turn into an I-beam when hovered over real text.
How can I tell if my PDF is a scanned image?
Try clicking and dragging over the text with the Select tool. If a large blue box forms over the entire page instead of individual lines of letters, or if the cursor never changes to an I-beam, your document is an image and requires OCR.
Why can't I highlight text even though my document is not scanned?
The document may have security restrictions placed by the author that prevent copying or highlighting. Check the document properties by navigating to File > Properties > Security to see if content copying and commenting are allowed.
