Foxit Reader Area Highlight Shortcut

0 views

Skip to first unread message

Barton Ostby

unread,

Aug 3, 2024, 3:24:45 PM8/3/24

to glenunanom

The highlighting function is an indispensable part of PDF markup tools. Suppose you need to stand out some special sentences or areas in your PDF, highlighter with multiple colors lets you find important text at a glance. Here, we focus on 5 ways on how to highlight a PDF on Mac. Adobe is also on the list.

What kind of PDF highlighter can be called best-in-class for Mac? That is certainly both of the above-mentioned functions are supported. In addition, there are plenty of customization options in properties. Cisdem PDFMaster would qualify.

Most powerful than other PDF highlighter, Cisdem PDFMaster provides a streamlined process to solve all your PDF tasks. Not only does it provide annotation tools, but it also enables you to edit PDF, edit scanned documents, convert/create PDF documents, manage pages, fill & sign in forms, reduce the PDF file size, lock & unlock PDF, etc.

Foxit is one of the most famous companies like Adobe. Foxit PDF Reader, the top product developed by Foxit Software, is a free-to-use and feature rich PDF reader. It allows you to highlight text, highlight a rectangular area, search the text and highlight it with a click. Modern Office-style interface and eye-catching icons make it easy to find what you need.

Some users rely on the functional software that comes with the Mac system, because they get started immediately, no downloads and update automatically. As the most convenient markup software for macOS, Preview lets users to highlight PDF, draw on PDF, underline text, add text, add sticky notes, insert signature, crop pages, add bookmarks and more.

Is it possible to get the coordinates of an already existing selection, so that the macro could re-select the same thing again on that same page of the document? Suppose that when the macro starts, certain text is already selected (as if you were going to copy it). The macro copies it. Then the user has to select a different tool, which the macro can accomplish by keyboard shortcut -- but after the tool is selected, the previous text selection is no longer selected (that's just the normal way that the application we're working in works). Is there any way for a macro to save information about the previous selection such that it could re-select the same thing?

See attached macro. It will allow you to define the area to select. It waits for the mouse click at the beginning and then grabs the coordinates and then it waits for you to click at the end of the selection. it will then go back and highlight the text in between and then copy it to the clipboard. Have your macro then open the second tool and do whatever it needs with the text and then have it reopen the first tool and repeat the first part of the macro so it will automatically highlight the selection again.

To make this work fast, you would have to be fairly creative in the logic of the original scan, because to examine every pixel of the screen would just take too long. Maybe some sort of binary search to put you in the highlighted area, then sequential stepping backward and forward to find the limits.

I tried this, but it seems to just not do anything. What I was hoping for was for the user to initiate the macro after they've selected the text (since this is the way the existing macro that I want to expand upon already works). As I suspected, this is probably not possible.

In Adobe Acrobat, if you select text and copy it, then the text is still selected. But then if you click on the Highlighter tool (to make the text yellow), that text becomes deselected and the cursor no longer knows where it was. So you have to click on the Highlighter tool and then re-select the text if you want to make it yellow. The idea is to get the macro to both copy it and highlight it yellow without the user having to re-select the text. (In Word, this wouldn't be necessary -- in Word, when you select something, then copy it, then it's still selected, and you can click on the Highlight button to highlight it -- clicking on the Highlight button doesn't de-select it.)

If the cursor knew where it had been, I might be able to select with Shift-arrow combinations from that point by the number of characters equal to the length of the original selection, but as far as I can see, selecting text to highlight it yellow only works with the mouse.

The problem is, at the first time I try to get mouse coordinates, it gets 0,0. The second time, it gets coordinates, so I don't know why it wouldn't get them the first time. I've tested enough that I know the "move mouse to text cursor location" command is working.

That sorta kinda works. The amount of text it selects is unpredictable. But I'm working on another idea, see the message I just posted. The text in the first program is selected by the user -- it has to be as it's unpredictable, depends on the user's judgment.

OK, more testing has shown that the get coordinates thing just doesn't really work in this application. I was getting 0,0 at one point because I had my variables mixed up. When I got them straightened out, I saw I was getting the same coordinates no matter where I was. I think that idea would be the way to go *IF* that command worked, but it's no go in this application.

You should not have to click the mouse before trying to get its coordinates. I wonder if it would help to get rid of that command? Maybe the application is doing something funny when the mouse is clicked. But if you are clicking to assure Windows returns focus to your application, then yes you may need the click.

Instead of stepping the mouse one character at a time to the end of the text, simply move it to the coordinates you originally saved after your PRESS RIGHT-ARROW KEY. Ditto for stepping the mouse backwards to get to the beginning of your text -- if you can find a trick like PRESS RIGHT-ARROW KEY to automatically position the cursor there (HOME key maybe???) it will be much faster than single-stepping the cursor.

As far as what you say near the end your message, I'm not quite following. I'm not sure what you mean by "stepping the mouse backwards". The idea is to use stepping backwards by keys in order to obtain:

This whole thing is about working with PDF files. So far, in Adobe, can't get coordinates (I get numbers but they are meaningless as they are always the same no matter where I am). In PDF X-Change Viewer, can't get coordinates. In Foxit Reader, I get the coordinates. It sounds as if you can't get coordinates in every application.

I see what you mean about the coordinates being always the same. Apparently in Adobe there IS no "text cursor", so even though the MOVE MOUSE TO TEXT CURSOR command does not error out, the mouse coordinates returned seem to be always the upper left corner of the screen. Brandon's original idea of having the macro running before the user selects text MIGHT work, by capturing the mouse-button-down coordinates and then the mouse-button-up coordinates. But in practical everyday use it will probably fail due to timing constraints -- the user simply is not going to pause long enough at the begin and end points to allow the macro to capture the mouse coordinates. The second difficulty I see is, the user may highlight data that spans several screens by dragging the mouse down below the bottom of the screen while the text scrolls off the top. Then, capture of mouse coordinates relative to the screen becomes useless.

IF THE DATA SELECTED IS CONFINED TO A SINGLE SCREEN, WITH NO SCROLLING, then I still think what you want could be accomplished by scanning the screen for the selection color, finding where the color begins and ends, saving those coordinates, and using them to re-select (drag the mouse from beginning point to end point) after the highlighting tool has been invoked. The difficulty would be knowing what selection color to look for, adjusting for 16-bit vs. 24-bit vs. 32-bit color, and getting a scan routine that works fast enough.