Right Click Copy on Highlight Does Not Seem to Copy Text?

[brody-xr3]

Hi,

In collating my highlights, I notice that when I right click / select a highlight I'm offered the option of "Copy". This seems to not actually copy the TEXT of the highlight? THe only way I can get the text itself copied is to

1 - double click the highlight
2 - Go into the resulting small box of text that appears off to the right of the highlight
3 - select all
4 - copy
5 - close the small scroll box of text from step 2

Is there any fewer-steps way of copying the text of a highlight?

I was surprised that right clicking the highlight and selecting "Copy" didn't...copy the text. Am I doing anything wrong there? Or, is that "Copy" in the right click context menu only an in-system copy?

For what it's worth, I do have the setting of grab text with highlights activated.

Sincerely,


BXR

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello brody-xr3,

Have the text section tool active and then press and hold down the Shift key - this should ignore the highlight object and allow you to select directly the text underneath.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[brody-xr3]

Hi Stefan,

Ah! Ok. Yep. Seems like then I'm only just reselecting the whole text. Am I right? I was hoping for more of a "Click that ALREADY selected thing you have there, and GO!"

Any way to do that other than the 5 steps I've listed above? A way around having to reselect the text again?

Sincerely,

BXR

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hi, brody-xr3

Unfortunately No, you see in PDF, "highlights" are not actually attached to the text, and after placement have no association with the text at all. The option you mentioned will, upon placement of the highlight, copy the text the was selected, and paste it into the comment, but it does not, will not, and currently according to the PDF spec, cannot, make a permanent link between the two, you can select the text block, and move it or copy it, the highlight is not part if it and will not be copied or moved with it.

As such, the only way to copy the text is to actually select the text, not the completely separate entity that is the highlight comment. Stefan mentioned one very quick and easy method, enabling the "select text" tool, which is located on the far left of nearly every toolbar, and then hold shift and select the page text.

Other than that, the Method that you are currently using would likely be the best alternative.

Kind regards,

[brody-xr3]

Sure. We all want to change the world. OR at least that's how the song continues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw&ab_channel=TheBeatlesVEVO

But, in this case, I'll settle not for...just seeing some evolving of the product vis-à-vis limitations.

One document, of many long documents I'm facing each day, is 800 pages.

Often, you seem to be missing the point. Rather than showing us HOW the product works, which you guys here in the forum do so well, I encourage you to ask yourselves the question - "Why are people using the product?"

Who would, possibly, read an 800 page file, and why?

It's surely only to...remember something important that the document expresses.

How can I recall those things if...once I spent all the time to HIGLIGHT them, there's no efficient way for me to CAPTURE them, and put them to use?

I accept that the...5 step process I outlined is "...likely be the best alternative."

But, then, the word "best" is doing a lot of work there in that statement.

It is "best" only...if your side has missed the point.

To illustrate: in an 800 page file...how many highlights do you think could be useful, per page?

Two?

Three?

So, now we're up to 2,400 highlights.

Each with... a five-step process.

It takes a heck of a long time to make... 2,400 highlights.

And... to suggest "Press Shift and re-select every highlight you made again individually! That way you can re-copy it." seems to show almost a level of contempt for users.

More likely, though, a misunderstanding of what people do when they read - confusing markup with application.

Which begs the question: why did I mark up the text in the first place for?

Only so I could EFFICIENTLY APPLY what I learned. In context. Within the document. Which means being able to copy it. "Review. Review. Ah! Yes! That means this.

five

step

process

Add to my original work.

"Review. Review."

Ah! Yes. This means that.

five

step

process (or Push click and wrangle colors over colors - 2, 400 times.)

And, that brings me back to evolution.

So far, I've been asking for simple methods to USE what it is we are reading. I'm still struck by what use Peter28 wrote five years after his original post:

The problem I have is to remember all what I read and make it quickly accessible for future reference. When I read a book in the past, I made (handwritten) notes, which is a lot of (copy down) work.

https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=103296

While it is true you have faithfully followed Adobe's spec for highlighting, that is an argument by definition.

Similarly, Henry Ford once said we could get a car in any color..."as long as it was black."

You're right. Currently, it is true that there is no way for one to select and grab the highlighted text. Still, I can SEE the highlighted text there in the pane. I can even click inside the wee one-line box in the pane. Or, I could open the scrolling dialog box and...use the 5-step "best" process. For...2,400 highlights.

You wrote "will not, and currently according to the PDF spec, cannot, make a permanent link between the two".

So, then, to bring you TO the point - the issue becomes: why is this so?

And, what can you do to fix that?

I encourage you to engineer your own link between the two on top of the current PDF spec.

Unless we're to accept that we can have a car in any color...as long as it is black.

Not being able to actualize the highlights we have selected is no better than...no highlights at all.

Hear this:

remember all what I read and make it quickly accessible for future reference.

How likely is it that a user, who went to through all the difficulty of marking up a a long work would...go through it again, re-selecting all the same text?

When, all you need to do is click the already-made highlight there in the pane and....

Wait! That's not part of the spec.

You're right. It's not. And, that's the issue.

Sincerely,

BXR

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hello,

I think there is a little misunderstanding by Tracker Support.

If I am right, the question goes about copying the content of the highlight text-box, not about the highlighted text itself.
@brody-xr3, please correct me if I am wrong.

So, I think this is something that must be technically possible.

The remaining question is if Tracker Software Development will find it a valuable item and if yes, will they be prepared to realize it.
And if so, how will the feature be called in the shortcut menu? Something like "Copy comment text".

[brody-xr3]

Hi, Willy! ))

If I am right, the question goes about copying the content of the highlight text-box, not about the highlighted text itself.

You're right.

So, I think this is something that must be technically possible.

The remaining question is if Tracker Software Development will find it a valuable item and if yes, will they be prepared to realize it.
And if so, how will the feature be called in the shortcut menu? Something like "Copy comment text".

Quite correct. Which is truly the LARGER point. Indeed it seems MORE than technically possible. But, it is that remaining question you asked which is so trenchant, and frustrating. That is the evolution question entirely. On the topic of helping readers / researchers / those who need to remember what they've read, there are two or three GLARING examples of arguments from definition I've posted in on the forum. They all resolve to: "That's the spec from Adobe. That's what we've done."

I think it's clear, too, as you've said:

I think this is something that must be technically possible.

What makes me feel disappointed is what seems like a baffling intent on the side of the Tracker Software Development to ignore what are requests going on now for...years. Literally, actually years - requests for ways to PURPOSE that which we've read, rather than just mark it up.

Cri de cœur? Certainly. But, isn't leveraging what the software can do the reason they are showing up at work each day? And, what we can expect for both our purchases, and our contributions here?

Sincerely,

BXR

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Can you please tell in short what is your final goal by copying all these highlight-text-comments ?
Are you copying this to several different destinations or to only one destination ?
Do you need to group or sort the information ? Do you need to categorize it ?

In another thread there was a large discussion about this item, what finally ended in the "Summarize Comments" feature:
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=22846
Did you already use/tried this, and if so, what is it still missing for you to be useful ?

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hi, Willy and Brody,

Frist, please also allow me to apologize for misunderstanding this request initially.

Thank you for continuing this conversation and providing a bit more clarity, you are correct that I misunderstood the request here. I was under the impression that you wanted to copy the currently existing, and definably by the PDF specification unrelated text from below the highlight comment object. I see now that you were specifically asking about copying the content from within that box in a quick and efficient manner, which I will admit does sound considerably more possible.

I do want to offer a response to some of your comments above Brody, we do try to offer as many features as we can, and whilst we do what we can, we are bound by two key factors.

• The first of which is the PDF-Specification, as you mentioned, which dictates a very large number of items which cannot be done, or must be done a certain way. As an example, comments Cannot be directly associated to base content, they must be placed relative to the page and thus are incapable of having a tie to a specific base content item like text.
• The second being that, unlike some of our competitors, we have a very small team, consisting of specialists who, while they do good work, are a limited number of people who can do a limited amount of work each day. As such we need to prioritize all of our developments, and so there are some items which, though highly requested, can be delayed indefinitely, or may exist for a few years before they can see action.

Do also note that, for years now, Adobe has not owned or managed the PDF Spec - we are not beholden to their decisions. It has been handed over to the ISO and is a global standard that not only we, but Adobe themselves, must also adhere to. If any PDF application does not follow the spec, it risks handling the content improperly/unexpectedly, and causing irreparable damage to the document due to conflicting ideas of "how" something should be done across other applications. The term PDF ("portable" document format), looses its entire purpose and meaning of being "portable", if you cannot make use of it without a specific application.

If we delve into explaining why something cannot be done, instead of taking the request in stride, it is usually becuase the first limiting factor has an impact on this item. Due to one rule or another, it genuinely could not be implemented at the PDF level, as was the case with my initial misconception. It is not possible to associate a highlight directly to a segment of base-content text.

Now, back to your actual request here (now that the misunderstanding has been cleared), I do not believe it should be an issue to copy the text content of a comment popup, and expect we could simply have a special "copy text from comment content" key combination added in to accomplish this. After a talk with the Dev team, I have even created a ticket on that point. As a bonus, if implemented the way I expect, it could work with all comment content, not just highlights; meaning underlines, strikeout, measurements, and any other comment with text text in its "popup" could possibly work. This ticket number is as follows, and while internal only, you can ask me again here for updates on its progress in the future.

RT#5524: FR: Copy Comment popup-text content

Kind regards,