Since updating to El Capitan, the highlights that I apply to PDFs in Preview sometimes move when I save the PDF. Once they move, I cannot put them back. The highlights no longer correspond meaningfully to the text to which they were originally applied (see screenshot below). This makes the PDF be functionally useless.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening or what I can do about it?
MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)
Does the problem occur in a different user account? Does it occur in Safe Mode?
This may be a workaround: Re: How do I fix 'highlighting' problems in mac Preview document?
This issue is driving me crazy!!! Did anyone get a solution?
I posted this yesterday through a link in my post. Here it is written out:
I have encountered the same problem on and off, most recently today.
I wondered why problem did not always occur. I suspected it had to do with how the pdf was created. I tried this and it seems to have fixed it:
1) Open pdf. Use File>Revert to... to go back to version prior to highlights. You could also delete misaligned highlights manually.
2) Print>Save pdf
3) It seems that highlighting in the new pdf works properly.
This is not a solution, but a workaround. Unfortunately, it involves redoing all your highlights.
Steve
And, just to make sure, the PDFs aren't synced with Zotero's cloud-based file storage? They are local and *only* local?
Yes, the files *only* local (I only synce the references, not the pdf files)
I never found a solution (or the definitive cause). I just stopped using Preview — for this and for other issues with Preview. I now use PDF Expert. I've never had that issue with PDF Expert.
I just ran the test and encountered no issues pre- or post- update.
Preview: highlights moving after saving
