[BUG] Highlight Selected Text

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

1. Select some text with the text select tool
2. Try to highlight it, underline it, or apply strikeout, either using the Toolbar icons, or the appropriate shortcuts (h, u, or s respectively in my case)

The tool is selected but the selected text is deselected without it being highlighted, underlined, or struckout.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

I see the same behavior into Adobe Acrobat.
Into previous build of the viewer there was another behavior?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Yes. It was different before. See this post by Quant.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Ok, will 'fix' it. But into build 42.3

[quant]

Ok, will 'fix' it. But into build 42.3

does not work in 42.3

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Fixed for 42.4 build.
due out tomorrow ...

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

This behaviour has been tested successfully in 42.4. It again functions as it used to, selected text will have the highlight, underline, strike through etc applied when the tool bar icon is pressed.

Expect that build to be available tonight/tomorrow morning unless testing reveals unexpected issues.

[quant]

This behaviour has been tested successfully in 42.4. It again functions as it used to, selected text will have the highlight, underline, strike through etc applied when the tool bar icon is pressed.

It doesn't work in my installation of 42.4
Can somebody please confirm that it works? Many Thanks

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

It works fine here.

• Highlight text with the text select tool
• Select the underline, highlight, or strikeout tools
• The highlighted text is underlined, highlighted, or struckout, and the currently selected tool changes

[quant]

It works fine here.

• Highlight text with the text select tool
• Select the underline, highlight, or strikeout tools
• The highlighted text is underlined, highlighted, or struckout, and the currently selected tool changes

what do you mean by "and the currently selected tool changes"?

This is what I'm doing in version 41.2:

I click on button "Select Text/Object Tool".
Then I select some text with mouse
Then I press key "H" which I set to "Highlight Text" (just to be sure, not the "Highlight Text Tool").
The selected text is highlighted and NO TOOL CHANGES, still the "Select Text/Object Tool" is selected.

It does not work in any further released version of Pdf viewer. Does this work for you in 42.4?

[jhreg]

Can confirm bug. Highlighting selected text by using a "shortcut button" (like "h") doesnt work. Hope this is going to be fixed. Thanks ahead.
Joh

[quant]

Can confirm bug. Highlighting selected text by using a "shortcut button" (like "h") doesnt work. Hope this is going to be fixed. Thanks ahead.
Joh

ok, thanks for confirming ... this bug was promised to be fixed in several versions, still no joy
sigh, back to 41.2 from feb/09

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

what do you mean by "and the currently selected tool changes"?

I have assigned the shortcuts, h, u, and s to the Highlight tool, the Underline tool, and the Strikeout tool respectively. As reported in the first post, the shortcuts still worked in earlier builds to switch tools, but did not format the text in the process. Now they do, and the toolbar icons also format the text, so the reported bug is fixed.

The shortcuts that I use for applying Highlight, Underline, and Strikeout, H, U, and S (with shift), do not work as they once did, but that is not the bug that I reported.

If I add toolbar buttons to highlight, underline, or strikeout text (they have no icons by default), the toolbar buttons do work.

[quant]

what do you mean by "and the currently selected tool changes"?

I have assigned the shortcuts, h, u, and s to the Highlight tool, the Underline tool, and the Strikeout tool respectively. As reported in the first post, the shortcuts still worked in earlier builds to switch tools, but did not format the text in the process. Now they do, and the toolbar icons also format the text, so the reported bug is fixed.

This was NEVER different as Ivan also thought in his second post.

What you mentioned in this thread and the other one was a new feature and now they implemented it.
The half year old bug, feature that once worked but does not anymore, since version 41.2, is not fixed.

[quant]

now the Highlight text tool is completely inconsistent.

Say I have not set "Keep tool selected". By selecting text, and doing "Highlight text tool" ... the newly created feature highlights the text, but it doesn't follow that rule "Do not keep tool selected". So it keeps the tool selected even though it already highlighted text, and it will be unselected only after second highlight.

Grrrrrrrrrr, thanks, well thought out.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

By selecting text, and doing "Highlight text tool" ... the newly created feature highlights the text, but it doesn't follow that rule "Do not keep tool selected". So it keeps the tool selected even though it already highlighted text, and it will be unselected only after second highlight.

There is nothing wrong at all. Why would you choose the highlight text tool, rather than highlight text, unless you wanted to highlight some more text as well as the currently selected text?

The only thing not fixed is the shortcuts for highlight text, etc., but that was not reported in this thread. The toolbar items for highlight text etc., work as designed. They are not tools, so keep tool selected doesn't apply.

I don't have the old version to test so I cannot say that it was never like this before. Whatever — it works as expected now so the bug that I reported is fixed. See what the tooltip says for the Highlight Text Tool: “Highlight the selected text.” The Underline Text Tool tooltip says: “Underline the selected text” and the Crosscut tool tooltip says: “Crosscut the selected text.”

[quant]

By selecting text, and doing "Highlight text tool" ... the newly created feature highlights the text, but it doesn't follow that rule "Do not keep tool selected". So it keeps the tool selected even though it already highlighted text, and it will be unselected only after second highlight.

There is nothing wrong at all. Why would you choose the highlight text tool, rather than highlight text, unless you wanted to highlight some more text as well as the currently selected text?

Because
1. highlight text doesn't work for half a year
2. I might prefer clicking on a button than pressing a key, and not have two buttons on toolbar that do the same thing

The only thing not fixed is the shortcuts for highlight text, etc., but that was not reported in this thread. The toolbar items for highlight text etc., work as designed. They are not tools, so keep tool selected doesn't apply.

We are talking about "Highlight Text Tool" so the Keep tool selected DOES apply! But it doesn't work, because it highlights the already selected text but keeps the tools selected, which is INCONSISTENT. It is more inconsistent that the reason by which you brought the newly created feature when you read "Highlight the selected text" and you figured that it should work before the tools is selected as well, and you thought it was bug, while it never worked that way, neither in PDF exchange, nor in Adobe.

See what the tooltip says for the Highlight Text Tool: “Highlight the selected text.” The Underline Text Tool tooltip says: “Underline the selected text” and the Crosscut tool tooltip says: “Crosscut the selected text.”

[/quote]
And how do you know that it means to apply the tool before the tool is actually selected or after? Now it works in both cases, so why does then "Keep tool selected" work only AFTER, a bit inconsistent.

Anyway, I give up

[jhreg]

Thanks Bhikkhu. In the "Have we forgotten..."-Thread:
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/ ... =35&t=6785
there you explain this problem exactly like i (and quant?) intended to do.
The text - choosen with the text selection tool - is expected to become highlighted by pushing a previously customized keyboard shortcut (like shift+h for highlighting). But it doesnt.
Thanks for clarification!
Joh

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

So to sumarize this because I'm not sure if everyone is seeing the same behaviours as I am. I would describe what I'm seeing as follows:

The Highlight Text Tool works correctly in that one can highlight text with Select Tool but the Keep Tool Selected does not work. As Bhikkhu has mentioned the Highligh Tool shortcut is a different issue.

If anyone is seeing different behaviour please advise so that we can get a clear target on this "bug"...

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The Highlight Text Tool works correctly in that one can highlight text with Select Tool but the Keep Tool Selected does not work. As Bhikkhu has mentioned the Highligh Tool shortcut is a different issue.

Quant's point is that the highlight, underline, and crosscut text tools never used to work with selected text on first selecting the tool. I thought they did, but I may have been wrong about that.

I still regard that as a bug because of what the tooltips say: Highlight selected text, etc. I still think the current behaviour is better, but its not as important as fixing the behaviour with the shortcuts for highlighting selected text. If there is a conflict of interests, then fix the other behaviour, and let this be as it was in the earlier builds.

The "bug" reported in this thread has been fixed. However, Quant says that if "Keep tool selected" is not checked, selecting the highlight text tool, highlights the selected text, and the tool stays selected (but as it is only for one more selection, I don't see that as inconsistent.

There is no way to highlight a single piece of selected text using the toolbar unless we add the Highlight Text command (which has no icon), but that was also the case before, because the Highlight Text Tool did not highlight selected text. Now it does, but the tool stays selected at least for one more text selection.

If "Keep tool selected" is enabled, then the selected tool remains selected until another tool is selected, whether or not text was selected when the tool was selected. So that is working as expected.

My other thread, Single-key Shortcuts Work When Text Editing, drifted off-topic because a different issue was raised in that thread by Quant, which is that the hightlight, crosscut, and strikeout shortcuts don't work for selected text. They still don't.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

The "bug" reported in this thread has been fixed. However, Quant says that if "Keep tool selected" is not checked, selecting the highlight text tool, highlights the selected text, and the tool stays selected (but as it is only for one more selection, I don't see that as inconsistent.

Because added behavior is unnatural. To highlight selected text there is special command available from context menu of selected text.
You had want to have ability to highlight selected text also when Highlight tool stays active. We had add this.
And, for sure, tools keeps selected because it was just activated, and "Keep tool selected" has no meaning at this time.

[joed28332939]

Hi,
The confusion arises by the description of the <Highlight the Selected Text>tool. This means that the text that is selected with this tool, not the < Select Text/Objects Tool> which is a different tool and can have it's own shortcut. Formerly when using the <Select Text Tool> and then hitting the <Highlight the Selected Text>tool, the selected text would clear. This is as it should be because you should not be able to use two tools at the same time. Now this has changed in this situation causing problems with the <Keep Tool Selected> and the shortcuts. Just backup!, it was right before. As far as highlighting a single piece of text, you can use the <Select Text Tool> then Right click to choose what you wish done or use a shortcut, but I believe using the <Highlight the Selected Text Tool> is the better option.

Joe

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

I think Ivan expressed it nicely in a conversation I had with him recently about this:

please consider these two items as different things: one is an action, another is a tool

Regardless of the pedantics of what we call it - keyboard short cuts should work for both independantly. This is being investigated.

regards