Can't Drag and Drop from pages bar in Acrobat XI Pro for Mac?

[onehunerdpercent]

MAC OSX 10.7.5

Acrobat XI Pro

In adobe Acrobat XI for Mac, how do I drag pages from the Pages Thumbnail sidebar into finder and make a new PDF?

In windows I can simply select the pages, drag and drop them into Explorer and it creates a completely new PDF with the pages I dragged.  I've tried everything on my Mac and I can't get it to extract this way.

It's extremely slow and frustrating having to manually right click extract, select the pages, open it in a new adobe window, then have to save the file through the menu. 

On windows I just select the page, drag to the folder, click , and rename.

[George_Johnson]

Strange. I can't test Acrobat 11 at the moment, but Acrobat 9.5.4 on OS 10.6.8 works as you want, unless security settings prevent it.

[Steve Werner]

It doesn't work for me in Acrobat XI on a Mac with OS X 10.8.3. It shows a + sign as I move over the Finder, but it creates nothing. I suspect it's a bug, and you should create a bug report:

Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[tranceplantt]

Ya, I am having the exact same problem with Acrobat XI, I can't drag and drop my pages. I use this option all the time and it's easy for people in the office to remember! I hope they fix it soon

[JoshTatum24]

I found your post when I was having this problem in Acrobat Pro XI on Windows 7. Then I switched from continuous- to single-page display. For some reason, it looks like dragging a page in continuous-page display moves the visible area of the page, but in single-page display, it moves the page. When page display is continuous, my cursor is a hand; when it's single-page, the cursor is an arrow. Also, if you are looking at a page other than the one you want to move (so the viewable area is on a different page in the Page Thumbnails), drag and drop works in either display mode.

[Guest]

JoshTatum24 wrote:

When page display is continuous, my cursor is a hand; when it's single-page, the cursor is an arrow.

This got me thinking, above the "page thumbnails" pane, there is an icon for an arrow with text and an icon for a hand. Click the hand and then you can drag and drop.

[jim.whati]

I was suddenly having the same problem in Acrobat XI Pro for Windows (recently upgraded to CC from Acrobat X).  For the past while I've sometimes had to use the "insert from file" tool to get a page added from another file.  I couldn't figure out why dragging sometimes would no longer work, but was too busy to go looking for a solution until tonight. 

The solution was given by JoshTatum24 above. Switch from a scrolling page display to single page display.  Now I can drag pages between documents again.  THANK YOU Josh!

Oh, and CORREAdmin,  it does not matter whether the hand or arrow selection tool is active, my mouse pointer is always an arrow when positioned in the page thumbnails panel.  Switching selection tools does not make a difference in dragging, but switching between scrolling and single page display definitely DOES make the difference.

[try67]

Switch from a scrolling page display to single page display.

Actually, it changes at the moment you are at a zoom level beyond that of the "Fit Width" level. If the page thumbnail looks like this it means you're beyond that zoom level:

At that level you can only duplicate the page by clicking down in the gray area of the thumbnail. If you click on the white area (the visible area) then it will hold on to the zoom box and move it around, instead of moving the actual page thumbnail itself.

[Zoonotics]

Macbook Pro Acrobat XI

Open the Original File

Use Extract Pages.

Open up the Thumbnails, click on the ones you wish to extract

Right Click one of the selected items.

Choose Extract Pages

Popup lets you change selection items, then

Choose Delete the selected item in the original document or Not

Then OK.

Name the new file and place it in the directory you want.

[mike_from_wft]

Too many steps for me. What happened to just being able to drag a page to create a new file? Is this a bug?

[try67]

It's still possible. See above...

[tranceplantt]

not possible to drag and drop a page to the finder with acrobat 11 +. Want a joke!

[Document Geek]

I realize this is an Acrobat forum, but I am going to refer you to Apple's "Preview" software. That will let you create a new PDF by dragging a thumbnail to the desktop.

[staceyt82818563]

I the security settings of (pdf A) it reads that Extracting is "NOT ALLOWED". I can't find anywhere that allows me change this setting. This is a pdf of someone else's (pdf A) that I am extracting into my own pdf (pdf B). Once I saved my own pdf (pdf B) I can no longer scroll over the name at the top and "unlock" it. So now everything is on lock down. I can grab the thumbnail from pdf A but it won't drop into pdf B any longer.

[try67]

It can only be changed if you know the password used to encrypt the file. Otherwise there's nothing you can do about it, at least not in any application by Adobe.

[smoshlak]

Okay guys.  I am still running Windows XP, but it's a don't care situation.  In the thumbnails pane, highlight the pages you want to move over to the other thumbnails pane.  when the hand is present, on a thumbnail, and hold the ALT-key down, when you attempt to drag the pages.

Steven Moshlak

http://www.computelerlegalexperts.com

[Pu Koh]

All you MVPs aren't reading the OP question.

This is not to drag (from thumbnail pane) from 1 acrobat window to another.

It's to drag from the thumbnail pane to the desktop (which in turn creates a PDF file with the pages that you selected in the thumbnail pane)

This was possible on OS X 2 versions of Acrobat ago. Was hoping DC would fix it. But no.

[try67]

It doesn't matter if you want to drag the pages to another file or to the desktop. If the file is secured then neither one is possible.

[Pu Koh]

but that wasn't what he was asking.

[try67]

They didn't provide any additional information beyond the first post. Someone else asked about a secured document.

[patrickl18781663]

I'm on Adobe Acrobat DC on newest version of Mac.  Two major problems.  1) As you mentioned, you cannot drag and drop pages/thumbnails from one PDF to another, as I can in older versions of Acrobat.  BUT THE CRAZY THING IS when I first opened the new Acrobat DC I WAS ABLE to drag & drop.  But the next time I went to use the function, it no longer lets me.  2) Why the hell doesn't Adobe allow me to keep thumbnails open?!   Every time I open a new document, I have to go to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Thumbnails to turn it on.... it won't let me lock the setting!  WTH kind of idiots make this crap, the older versions worked fine.  Even when I go to  View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Show Navigation Pane, it still WONT lock my setting.  Every time I open a new PDF I have to use the drop downs to be able to work. 

[andy08]

I was having drag and drop troubles too. I also noticed that in my properties it said "Extracting: Not Allowed"

I realized that my files were opening up within Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and not within Adobe Acrobat Pro. Closing both files and using the "open with" function to get to Adobe Acrobat Pro fixed the problem. I can now drag and drop pdf pages into my working document.

[thelazydesigner]

Hello there, this thread is from 2013, now it's almost 2016 and yes, IT'S STILL A BUG.

Page extraction via drag-and-drop on Mac OSX in Acrobat Pro (on unprotected documents) does not work!

One word: unacceptable.

[tranceplantt]

I am still using Acrobat 10 just because of that. 

You can drag and drop between documents, but you cant drag and drop a page onto the finder anymore.  

I'll stick with Acrobat 10 until it's fixed.

[nlin79]

After years of using an old version, I finally forked out the money for the newest version and this sucks that I can't drag and drop pages into finder. Doubles my work.

Helloooo??

Adobe???

Is anybody listening??