User Guide Cancel

Reusing PDF content

Search
Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat

Open on web
  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. What's new in Acrobat
    3. Keyboard shortcuts
    4. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. Action Wizard (Acrobat Pro)
    12. PDFs converted to web pages
    13. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    14. PDF articles
    15. Geospatial PDFs
    16. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    17. Change the default font for adding text
    18. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to JPG
    4. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    5. File format options for PDF export
    6. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. About certificate signatures
    5. Certificate-based signatures
    6. Validating digital signatures
    7. Adobe Approved Trust List
    8. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

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.
The Select tool
Select text by dragging from an insertion point to an end point (left) or by dragging diagonally over text (right).

Select text and images

  1. 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.

  2. Drag the pointer and draw a rectangle to select a part of the page.

Select a column of text

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  1. 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.

  2. Click 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

  1. Use the Select tool to select any amount of text on the page.

  2. 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.

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.

  1. Select the Select tool . Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) to create a rectangular selection.

  2. 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.

  3. Right-click the selection, select Export Selection As, and specify a filename.

  4. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  1. Select All tools > Use print production > Edit object.

  2. Select the object or objects.

  3. Right-click the selection, and choose Save Selection As.

  4. 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:

  1. Select the Snapshot tool by selecting the hamburger menu   (Windows) or the Edit menu (macOS) > Undo, Redo & more > Take a snapshot.

  2. 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.

More like this

 Adobe

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Quick links

View all your plans Manage your plans
View quick links
Hide quick links
Adobe MAX 2024

Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Register Now

Adobe MAX

The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Register Now
Adobe MAX 2024

Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Register Now

Adobe MAX

The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Register Now

Legal Notices    |    Online Privacy Policy