Can't search for words anymore after saving PDFs in Preview

I have that exact problem as well, and I can add:

Yes, I have read/write permissions

Also, if I copy some text from the document and paste it into Textedit or another editor, I also get the cryptic garble mentioned.

I would be grateful for any help or ideas.

Thanks,

- Alexander

See this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8240020&#8240020

Annotations made in Preview seem to cause this problem.

Hi, thanks for answering quickly, and the heads up on that other thread.

It undoubtedly has to do with the annotations or mark ups (the last, in my case).
In the linked-to thread they end by suggesting that it's because it's has "commenting not allowed" when you see it
using Adobe Reader, File > Properties > Security says Commenting: Not Allowed.

However, some documents with "commenting not allowed set in Adobe Reader I can highlight or annotate fine, without it messing up after saving.
Besides, any document I save as pdf even from Word, will say commenting not allowed in Adobe Reader. So if even my own documents are not highlight- or annotate-able without garbling the text, what documents would these functions be for, then?

I think what somebody mentioned in the other thread about character encodings hold some truth, I see it in documents in Danish with æ ø and å (however, not all!), but not in English-only docs (yet. Have any of you?).

Thanks in advance,

- Alexander

they end by suggesting that it's because it's has "commenting not allowed" when you see it
using Adobe Reader,

That was my comment, but I now doubt it has any connection to the problem.

not in English-only docs (yet. Have any of you?).

I think the earlier thread indicated the same problem with an English doc from Hong Kong.

There is probably more than one reason that this can happen. Some pdf's I know transpose the characters to the Unicode Private Use Area which prevents copy/paste from some readers.