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Reusing PDF content

Last updated on Oct 10, 2024 | Also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2017, Adobe Acrobat 2020

Before you begin

We're rolling out a new, more intuitive product experience. If the screen shown here doesn’t match your product interface, select help for your current experience.

In the new experience, the tools appear on the left side of the screen.

Select and copy text and images

The Select tool lets you select horizontal and vertical text or columns of text, images, vector objects, and tables in a PDF. The Select tool recognizes the type of content under the cursor and changes automatically. You can use the Copy, Copy with Formatting, Export Selection As, and Paste commands to copy the selected text into another application. Note the following:

If you’re unable to select text, the text may be part of an image. In Acrobat, select All tools > Scan & OCR, then select In this file under RECOGNIZE TEXT to export image text to text that can be selected.
If the Cut, Copy, Copy with Formatting, and Paste commands are unavailable when you select the text, the author may have set restrictions to copying text.
If the text you copy uses a font that isn’t available on your system, the font is substituted with a close match or default font.

Select text and images

Select the Select tool , and hover over an empty part of the page. Alternatively, press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS); the pointer changes to display a rectangle.
Drag the pointer and draw a rectangle to select a part of the page.

Select a column of text

Using the Select tool , move the pointer toward a column of text. When the pointer changes to a vertical bar, the Select tool is in column select mode.

Note:

You can force column select mode by pressing Alt as you drag a rectangle over the column of text.
Drag a rectangle over the column of text. To select text across multiple columns, drag from the beginning of the text in one column to the end of the text you want to select.

Select all the text on a page

Select View from the upper left (macOS) or select the hamburger menu on the upper left and then select view (Windows). Select Page display > Single-page view.
Select four times repeatedly in the text area. This method selects all the text on the page regardless of the page layout.

Note:

If you choose any other page layout, all the text in the document is selected.

Copy selected text

Use the Select tool to select any amount of text on the page.
Right-click on the selected text, and then select Copy.

You can paste the copied text into comments, bookmarks, and documents authored in other applications.

Paste copied text and images

Open the PDF in which you want to paste the selected text or image.
Select the area where you want to paste the text or image.
(Windows) Press Ctrl + V.

(macOS) Press command + V.

Convert selected content to other formats

You convert selected content to other formats by exporting a selection. For example, you can select content and save it as a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or comma-separated values.

Select the Select tool . Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) to create a rectangular selection.
Drag a rectangle over the content to copy. If you’re selecting text in columns, press Alt (Windows).

Note:

To select tables that exceed one page, try changing the page display to Single Page before selecting the tables. Then select View > Page Display > Enable Scrolling.
Right-click the selection, select Export Selection As, and specify a filename.
Depending on the nature of the content, in the Save As Type, select one of the following:

Word Document or Word 97-2003

Saves the content as a Word file.

Excel Workbook, XML Spreadsheet, or CSV

Saves the content as a table.

Rich Text Format or HTML

Saves the content as an RTF or HTML file.

Note:

To copy a table in RTF, drag the selected table into an open document in the target application.

PowerPoint

Saves the content as a PowerPoint (.pptx) file.

Copy images

Use the Select tool to copy and paste individual images from a PDF to the clipboard, another application, or a file.

Open the Preferences dialog box if you cannot select an image because of overlapping text. Select Acrobat in the upper-left (macOS) or Menu in the upper-left (Windows), then select Preferences. Under Categories, Select General. Then select the Make Select tool select images before text.

Using the Select tool , do one of the following:
- To select the entire image, select the image or drag a rectangle around it.
- To select a portion of an image, hold the pointer over the image until the cross-hair icon appears, and then drag a rectangle around the portion.
Note:

To deselect an image and start over, click outside it.
Right-click the image and select copy. Once done, you can paste it to a new file or a clipboard.

Export objects to separate PDF

Using the Edit Object tool, you can save objects into a separate PDF.

Select All tools > Use print production > Edit object.
Select the object or objects.
Right-click the selection, and choose Save Selection As.
In the Save As dialog, specify where you want to save the file, name the file, and then select Save.

Take a snapshot of a page

You can use the Snapshot tool to copy all selected content (text, images, or both) to the clipboard or another application. Text and images are copied as an image.

You can use two methods to take a snapshot: the Select or Snapshot tools. Using the Select tool , draw a rectangle, right-click, and select Take a Snapshot.

To use the Snapshot tool, do the following:

Select the Snapshot tool by selecting the hamburger menu (Windows) or the Edit menu (macOS) > Undo, Redo & more > Take a snapshot.
Do one of the following:
- Select anywhere on the page to capture the entire content displayed on the screen.
- Drag a rectangle around the text or images or a combination of both.
- Drag a rectangle within an image to copy just a portion of the image.
  
  Colors in the selected area are inverted momentarily to highlight the selection. The selection is copied automatically to the clipboard when you release the mouse/touchpad button. If a document is open in another application, go to the document, right-click, and select Paste to paste the copied selection directly into the target document.
Note:

You can save all the images from a PDF. See Export images to another format . This feature isn’t available in Reader.

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