Adobe ACROBAT 3D Manual page 459

Copying text
The Select tool lets you select text or columns of text in an Adobe PDF document. You
can use the Copy and Paste commands to copy the selected text into another application.
Or you can use the context menu to add comments and create links from the text. Note the
following:
You can specify in the General preferences that whenever the Hand tool is over text in an
Adobe PDF document, it functions as the Select tool. You can also determine whether text
is selected before images, or images before text. (See
If the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands are unavailable when you select text, the author of
the PDF document may have set restrictions against copying text. (See
security.)
If a font copied from a PDF document is not available on the system displaying the copied
text, the font cannot be preserved. The font is substituted on the receiving system with a
close match or a default font.
If the PDF document is tagged properly, you can use the Copy With Formatting
command, which retains the document's multicolumn layout, if any. This option functions
the same as Copy To Clipboard in untagged PDF documents.
In some situations, your selection may include unwanted text. For example, while
selecting text that spans two pages, the text selection may include footer information. By
tagging text properly, you can avoid such errors. (See
Reflow.)
If the PDF document was created using a scanner and wasn't made searchable, or if the
text is part of an image, the text may be recognized as an image, not as characters that you
can select. Both the Create PDF From Scanner and the Recognize Text Using OCR
commands let you convert image text to text that can be selected. (See
PDF files from paper
Select text by dragging from an insertion point to an end point (left) or by dragging diagonally
over text (right).
To select characters, spaces, words, or lines of text:
1. Select the Select tool
Drag across the text to be selected. (You can also click to create an insertion point, and
Shift-click to create a second insertion point. The text between the two insertion points is
selected.)
Double-click to select a word.
Triple-click to select a line of text.
Click four times to select all the text in a page.
2. If you want to extend a selection letter by letter, press Shift and an arrow key. To extend a
selection word by word, press Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or Shift+Command (Mac OS) and an
arrow key.
You can revert to the Hand tool at any time by pressing Esc. You can switch to the Hand
tool temporarily by holding down the space bar. If you hold the pointer over the text
selection, a menu appears that lets you copy, highlight, or underline the text, among other
options.
To select a column of text:
1. Select the Select tool
pointer changes to a vertical bar with a box superimposed, the Select tool
select mode. To force column selection rather than text selection, press Ctrl (Windows) or
Command (Mac OS).
2. Do one of the following:
Hold the pointer outside the text area so that it changes to the column-select pointer
and drag a marquee over the block or column of text.
Ctrl+Alt-drag (Windows) or Command+Option-drag (Mac OS) a marquee over the block
or column of text.
To select text in more than one column, drag from the beginning of the text in one column
to the end of text you want to select.
The sensitivity with which the Select tool changes from text selection mode to column
selection mode is set in the General preferences.
To select all the text on a page:
1. Choose Single Page for the page layout, and select the Select tool
2. Do one of the following:
Choose Edit > Select All.
Select any text on the page, and then press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS).
Note: If Continuous or Continuous-Facing is selected for the page layout, all the text in
the document is selected.
Click four times in the page. This method selects all the text on the page regardless of the
page layout.
To copy selected text:
1. Use the Select tool
2. Do one of the following:
Choose Edit > Copy to copy the selected text to another application.
Hold the pointer over the selection until a menu appears, and then choose Copy To
Clipboard or Copy With Formatting. (Copy With Formatting, which preserves the column
layout, appears only if the document is tagged properly.)
Hold the pointer over a selection to display a menu.
You can paste copied text into comments and bookmarks as well as into documents
authored in other applications.
documents.)
and do one of the following:
, and move the pointer towards the column of text. When the
to select any amount of text on the page.
General preferences.)
About document
Understanding and optimizing
Creating Adobe
.
is in column
,