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I keep getting unwanted sticky notes when I shift click with edit text/object tool

In Acrobat XI Pro whenever I attempt to select multiple items for editing with the Edit Text and Images tool by holding down the shift key I get a green sticky note instead. I don't even use sticky notes, so I looked for a preference or option to turn them off completely, but can't seem to find a way. Any help appreciated. I'm on a Mac Pro with OS 10.6.8.


Bobby Miller


12 Answers

Voted Best Answer

I know this thread is a few weeks old now, but I've just come across this exact same problem. I'm also on a Mac Pro, running 10.6.8, using Acrobat XI Pro. I've got PitStop installed as a plugin. It's the first time I've used PitStop in this version of Acrobat as I've only just upgraded to it.

I had a PitStop selection tool selected and wanted to click on two separate objects in the PDF to edit them. When I held down shift to click on the second object I got a green sticky note instead. I eventually found out what was causing it – I had the Output Preview window open at the same time (as I was using it to check colour splits in the document). As soon as I closed the Output Preview window I didn't get the green sticky notes any more. I can replicate this over and over again, by opening and closing the Output Preview window – it seems to happen to me every time. Of course, this could be an Acrobat/PitStop clash that may not be the same as yours, but I thought I'd mention it in case this was the cause for yours too.


By Barry Smith   

The two different tools (Edit Text&Images and the "sticky note" comment) are completely separate - and unrelated. I've never experienced this problem. There is no preference that would cause this. Do you have a sequence of clicks that can always reproduce this problem?

Karl Heinz Kremer
PDF Acrobatics Without a Net
PDF Software Development, Training and More...
http://www.khkonsulting.com


Karl Heinz Kremer   

I've never experienced this problem, also, and could not replicate it, either on Mac or on Windows.
Anyway, try to right-click on sticky note tool and make sure that "Keep Tool Selected" option is disabled to see if this is interfering. If this option is ticked, untick it.

enter image description here


Almir R V Santos   

In answer to your question Karl ,the sequence is clicking on an image or text box with the Edit Text and Images tool, then holding down the shift key and clicking on another object with the Edit Text and Images tool. Instead of selecting the second object up pops a sticky note. It happens every time. I have to switch to Acrobat 9 to edit the PDF frequently. I know it doesn't make any sense, but it is definitely happening ever since I installed Acrobat Xl.


Bobby Miller   

The "Keep tool selected" option for the sticky notes tool is not on, nor has it ever been. Thanks for the suggestion Almir.


Bobby Miller   

I cannot reproduce this, so it's not something that is happening on every Mac with Acrobat XI.

I would try to reset the Acrobat configuration first. On a Mac, you can follow the instructions on this page: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/pro/using/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7feb.w.html#WS53d845b1b545acea6247fadc12befcceda1-7ffe

If this does not work, I would uninstall Acrobat and re-install from scratch. If this still does not fix the problem, we need to dig deeper.

Karl Heinz Kremer
PDF Acrobatics Without a Net
PDF Software Development, Training and More...
http://www.khkonsulting.com


Karl Heinz Kremer   

Karl,
I have trashed the preferences and reinstalled several times already. No luck. I have found a workaround solution by removing the Comments.acroplugin from the Acrobat Contents/Built-in folder. I don't use comments and if I ever want to I can always replace the plugin. Thanks for the suggestions.


Bobby Miller   

My last guess is that this problem might have something to do with keyboard shortcuts.
Go to menu Acrobat -> Preferences, choose "General" category and verify if "Use single-key accelerators to access tools" is disabled. If it is enabled, disable it and see if this helps.

enter image description here

⌘ (CMD) + 6 is the keyboard shortcut to sticky note tool, but if you enable the "Use single-key accelerators..." preference, you just need to type "s" to access it.

enter image description here


Almir R V Santos   

That's a good idea, but unfortunately "Use single-key accelerators to access tools" has always been disabled.
Thanks for the help.


Bobby Miller   

Barry, you are a genius. Thanks for connecting this to the Output Preview. I never would have made this connection. The Output Preview tool, will create an annotation with the same information it displayed in the dialog, when the shift key is held down while clicking. That annotation is green, and it has the "Text Note" icon. This is a way to get the information from the Output Preview dialog into your document if you need to keep it around.

I actually don't know if this is documented anywhere, a quick search in the documentation did not turn up anything, but I can find a number of people who think it's a bad idea because it's overriding the normal shift key behavior for a multi-item selection. There is nothing I am aware of to turn this feature off besides closing the output preview window.

Karl Heinz Kremer
PDF Acrobatics Without a Net
PDF Software Development, Training and More...
http://www.khkonsulting.com


Karl Heinz Kremer   

Barry I also use Pitstop, and it shows the same behavior that you mention. The only reason I didn't associate it with Pitstop specifically is because the note also comes up when I use the edit object tool with the shift key and that is not Pitstop related. I didn't notice the output preview issue because I'm a prepress manager and pretty much always have output preview on. My workaround was to turn off comments altogether, which isn't a problem, but I noticed that sometimes the shift key would still not allow me to select another item. I can see now that this is related to the output preview even though I don't get notes anymore. Thanks a bunch for your observations. I wish I didn't have to turn off output preview to shift click select items, but now I know how to avoid the problem.


Bobby Miller   

No problem guys – just glad I found out what it was. It was driving me nuts!

It is a nice little feature actually, might come in handy from time to time. But, Adobe, there are other key modifiers other than the Shift key – maybe change it? Or allow us to change it to our preferred one? Just a thought. I can see this catching me out again in the future when I'm not thinking about it!


Barry Smith   

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