Acrobat DC Standard. Can't "Add Text" to many PDFs

[Greener14519]

On about one quarter of the PDFs I need to edit, the "Add Text" button won't assign the cursor to the document.  It appears to work and the cursor will hover over the document with the "A", like it's attempting to work, but clicking on the document doesn't allow the text box to activate.  No keyboard presses result in a character on the document.  I can click anywhere on the document and nothing will work.

My only work-around is to create a text file in another program, save it as a PNG file as a transparency and import it as an image onto my PDF.  This is ridiculously cumbersome.

The documents I'm working with are technical drawings, probably created in AutoCad and converted to PDF.  The most recent one I'm working on is not a scan as Acrobat recognizes the layers, but still cannot add text.  All other features seem to work.  Acrobat doesn't recognize the text so I have to remove letters and words as if they were images which is fine, but I need to add text to replace what I remove and that's a no-go.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Dave__M]

I would take a look at the Security Tab of your Document Properties dialog (Edit>Preferences on PC, or Acrobat>Preferences on Mac). Make sure the document's security settings are not preventing you from making textual edits.

[Greener14519]

I'm not sure how to accomplish this.  I used Edit>Preferences>Security and this is what I see:

[gkaiseril]

You may need to OCR, Optical Character Recognition, on the PDF to establish the text layer. Another option would be to add text box comments and then then flatten the PDF.

[Greener14519]

I cannot find this feature.  A Google search revealed that OCR is only available in Acrobat DC Pro.  As mentioned in my OP, I'm running DC Standard.

I would consider upgrading to Pro, but all information I can find from Adobe appears to be a subscription-only option.  I cannot subscribe to a monthly program fee.  I may get my company to approve a one-time expenditure.  Does anyone know if I can purchase an upgrade to Acrobat Pro?

[gkaiseril]

Many retailers sell non-subscription Acrobat Pro. You could also use a non-Adobe OCR program. Many of the non-Adobe programs offer many options not available with Acrobat.

[try67]

You can still buy a non-subscription license directly from Adobe, although they do their best to hide it, it seems...

[Greener14519]

try67,

     Interesting.  I fully accept that I may be missing something obvious, but I've followed every link I could find within Adobe and I don't find any reference to anything that isn't subscription-based.  Could you suggest a link to such a program?

Thank you,

Joe

[try67]

Sure.  Go to the Adobe Products Page: https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/software.html

Click on the Buy button next to Acrobat Pro DC, and then change the "I want to buy" option to "Full" (or "Upgrade" if you have a qualifying earlier version).

Then select the other options and click on Add To Cart, and proceed to checkout. You'll get a full license, not a time-based subscription.

[Greener14519]

Thank you, try67,

     I would have never thought to press the "buy" button next to the subscription option in order to unlock the option to buy the non-subscription software.  It turns out that Adobe wants to charge me another $200 to upgrade.  I think there is no guarantee that this same thing won't happen after the upgrade as well.  Since this is a feature that is supposed to work with DC Standard, I think I need to continue pursuing Adobe to repair the software I've already paid for.

Thanks again,

Joe

[Greener14519]

gkaiseril,

     Thanks for the reply. Sadly, I convinced my boss to purchase Acrobat DC to do exactly this. I cannot now say to him that the software doesn't work and we need to purchase a different program.  If the problem isn't with me, but instead is a failure of the software, I will be looking to Adobe to make this right.

[Dave__M]

My bad... go to File>Document Properties and then the Security tab.  My apologies for typing faster than I could think!

[Greener14519]

AcrobatDave,

   Thanks for the correction.  When I opened the most recent document that won't let me add text, I followed your instructions and got to this screen:

It doesn't appear to have any security limitations at all.  And even still, I cannot add text.

Am I missing something?  Thanks for helping!

Joe

[Dave__M]

Agreed - the screenshot shows no permission setting to restrict any editing.

[Greener14519]

AcrobatDave,

     Can you think of anything else I might be doing wrong here?  As I mentioned, about three quarters of the documents I work on, I can edit just fine.  Then I get these random situations where I simply can't add text.  I've tried closing the program and reloading the document.  Nothing seems to work.  I'm stumped!

Thanks,

Joe

[Dave__M]

Although it may or may not lead to the solution, I would be curious to know some of the details in the File > Properties description Tab. This is where you can often learn how the PDF was made.  For example, You may have the design application listed (something like Adobe Illustrator), and the PDF producer (something like Microsoft Office Word 2007, or Adobe PDF Library).  Perhaps we can find a pattern or some characteristic in common of the docs that you can not edit.

Dave

[Greener14519]

Thank you AcrobatDave,

Here is the Description page:

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the problem files were created with AutoCAD as most of what I work on are technical drawings.

I can go try to find another document that also won't work and we can compare the Descriptions pages.

[Greener14519]

AcrobatDave,

     I have screenshots of the description page of three more documents.  The first one will not let me add text.  The second and third are documents that I can edit fine. They appear to all be created in the same fashion.

[Dave__M · Accepted solution]

OK.  So they are made of the same 'stuff'.  Another avenue to explore might be the layering structure.  AutoCAD will output to a layered PDF.  Some folks would take advantage of the layering to show or hide layers in Acrobat.  Others won't use/need this feature at all.  An experiment I would do (with doing a 'save-as' first to preserve your original) is to open the Layers Panel on the left and try to flatten the file, assuming it is constructed in layers.  Once flattened, try to make an edit to see if you can then add text.  I would be curious if eliminating X amount of layers will affect whether your can make your text additions.

Dave

[Greener14519]

Dave_M,

     Thank you so much for staying with me on this!  I was away from my computer last week but read your post on my phone and have been looking forward to trying out your suggestion.  Here's what I found:

     The "Layers" dialogue on DC Standard seems to be very limited.  I couldn't find any tools that allowed me to "flatten" the layers.  I can see the layers and I can click the eye icon to make them visible or not.  Other than that, I don't see many more tools.

     But!  You mentioned saving a copy so as not to screw up my original and that got me thinking.  When selecting "Save As", there's a toggle button that says "reduce file size".  I wondered if this would flatten the layers upon saving.  It did not.  When I open the file, the layer dialogue is still there and the tools are the same.  However, the good news is....this re-saved document will allow me to add text!  Not sure why it works, but I'm very pleased that it does.

     Over the next few days, I will look for other documents that have this flaw and attempt to use this work-around on them and see if it's an actual solution to my problem.  I'm still frustrated with Adobe that a feature on my software appears to not work properly, but I can probably live with the solution if it works every time.

Thanks again Dave!

Joe

[Dave__M]

I'm pleased that things are working for you!  Sometimes solutions are in the most unexpected places.  I'm glad that our collaboration led to a solution for you.

My best,

Dave

[KrrUser1]

I had the same type of issue using Adobe Pro DC (version 2020.009.20067) wherein the Editing tools ('Add Text' specifically) was not working for some .PDF documents, while it worked fine on others.  Saving as a "Reduced File Size PDF" unfortunately did NOT work for me, but for some reason, "Save As Other" -> "PDF/E" did.   No idea why, or what "PDF/E" even is, except what it says at https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-x-pdf-a-pdf.html, but I know the "Add Text" functionality suddenly started working properly once I did this, on at least one document in which it previously wouldn't work.

[juless57225166]

Nothing worked for me either.  I exported it to Word, edited it there, and saved it as a PDF again.  Security in properties showed everything to be allowed.  This is the only time it has happened to me.  I will watch out for this specific sender.  Maybe he is using some wonky software to create his pdfs.

[SDS1962]

I know I'm late to the party, but it's possible that the program that created the .pdf will not allow it to be edited in any form.  Our law firm's billing software is like that.  If I need to label a fee statement as an exhibit for a trial, I cannot simply "add text" to it.  Even though there's technically no security on the document, it is still uneditable.  My workaround is to simply print to another .pdf (in Windows, choose "Microsoft Print to PDF" in the print dialog box).  I can then add text to the "new" .pdf with no problems.