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dalrympj
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What happened to the "Text Edits Tool" in Acrobat X?

Jul 31, 2012 5:32 PM

I know the answer is "it went away" but, seriously, please bring it back. In Acrobat 9, when you activated the "Text Edits Tool," it would automatically switch between insert, delete, and replace text in a context-sensitive way. You just had an active tool cursor - if you highlighted text and started typing, it would "replace" the text. If you clicked in one spot and started typing, it would "insert" text. If you highlighted text and clicked the Delete key, it would "delete" text. All this with one tool, that stayed active the entire time you were using it.

 

Now, in Acrobat X, you have 3 different tools. You have to click to select the tool - mark the change. Click to select the next tool and mark that change. And on and on. And while you can right-click on any single tool and select "Keep tool selected" - there's no way to make that the default behavior. And that doesn't help when switching back and forth between activities.

 

I know that the Selection Tool can now almost serve as the old "Text Edits Tool" - this works quickly with delete, but requires the tilde shortcut for insert or replace. Basically one extra step for each edit than there was with the Text Edits Tool.

 

One might think that that little extra click isn't a big deal - but when you are marking up a PDF all day, every day, it adds up.

 
Replies
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 31, 2012 8:46 PM   in reply to dalrympj

    I assume you're talking about commenting and markup rather than editing the text of the document itself.

     

    The keyboard shortcuts are  designed to do exactly what you want. With the multi-select tool active (I beam + black arrow on the toolbar):

     

    • Select some text and press the Insert key - a new Replace text annotation is created and the note panel opened for typing. Press Esc to close the note
    • Click to place the cursor within some text and press the Insert key - a new Insert text annotation is created and the note panel opened.
    • Select some text and press the Delete key - a strikeout annotation is created (no note this time but you can add one by double-clicking)

     

    The idea of selecting something and 'just typing' to activate a markup event could not be retained as it interfered with the single-key accelerator mode.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Aug 1, 2012 11:41 PM   in reply to dalrympj

    Working on that...

    dalrympj wrote:

     

    Otherwise, we'll make due with the shortcuts - which aren't really documented very well. Hint, hint to Adobe there as well!

     
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