Text selection in Preview doesn't work in Catalina

FWIW, if you have a Google account you can upload the PDF to Google Docs, and from there save it as a rtf or docx file, etc.

Selection:

Suomenkielisille lapsille ei tarjottu koulusivistystä: suomeksi pystyi käymään vain

pientenlasten-, kierto- tai kansakoulua, joissa opetettiin perustaidot lukemisessa, kirjoittamisessa ja

laskemisessa. Pidemmälle menevää opetusta sai vain ruotsiksi, ja kielikynnys oli suomalaisille

Translation:

Finnish-speaking children were not offered school education: they could only visit Finnish

infant, circular, or elementary school teaching basic reading, writing, and

the calculation. Further education was provided only in Swedish, and the language threshold was Finnish

Control-click, choose Open With... and then choose another option, like, for example, Safari.

Does it have the same problem?

Can you post one of the pdf files that show the problem to a place like dropbox, so we can have a look?

Hi sanna114,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! I see you're having problems with editing PDF documents, and I'd like to do what I can to help out.

Have you restarted your Mac since noticing this issue? If not, go ahead and do that, as a restart can resolve unusual issues.

If you're still having the same issue, then I'd then try a NVRAM reset, as shown here: Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

If it's still happening, try opening the Preview app while holding the Shift key. You can also try starting up your Mac in safe mode, which will run some system tests and not allow login items to open. Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

Keep in mind, while in safe mode, your Mac may take longer to start up, and you may see some display issues, like lines or flashing. This is expected and will clear when restarting again normally.

If you're still not able to do what you need to, contact the app developer for help. How to contact an app developer

Take care!

I have tried copy and paste from your document and copy and paste from another pdf and the two behave differently. I suggest whatever is producing the pdf is flawed

Two pastes here, one from yours, one from a commercial document. Preview is not to blame I suggest.

sanna114 wrote:

I updated my new MacBook Air to Catalina. Now I can't use the text edit tool in Preview with documents that have been created with Libre Office before the update. If I select text from a pdf made with Libre Office, and then paste it to any text processing program, it changes into numbers and special characters - no matter if I use "unformatted" or "formatted" pasting.

I updated my Libre Office, and exported text from a document created after that. That worked just fine in Preview. But the old ones are a serious problem. I have dozens of documents that have been created with Libre Office before the updates and then exported as pdf's, and now I can't copy their texts but have to rewrite each word. I will be 100 before I get my PhD done...

Any suggestions?

You can always try using different software if your LibreOffice is up to date and you still have issues with PDF's.

PDFpen

PDF expert

Adobe Acrobat

You cannot post the pdf here.

Put it somewhere we can download it from, like dropbox, or google drive, and post a link to it here.

There is also a security setting in LibreOffice export option to allow copying or not

The problem is not specific of Catalina, the same thing happens with High Sierra.

I believe Peter may be on to it.

I have tried this and I am also getting the same problem. It seems that it is something peculiar about the file. It displays perfectly, it prints perfectly, but copy and paste produces apparently rubish.

I don't see the link either...