Hi,
Does anyone know why preview creates a text box when we click above a line in PDF? That is really annoying because I cannot type any text in the text box that is created automatically by preview, I have no idea why such functionality exists, and how can I turn it off?
Cheers.
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)
A textbox with the word “Text” in it is created when you click the Text icon (T in a box) on the Markup toolbar, or use the keyboard shortcut control-command-T — regardless if you are in Rectangular, or Text Selection mode. You will likely need to laterally expand the Text box, before double-clicking within it to enter text.
If you are in Rectangular Selection mode, the normal northwest facing black pointer cursor is replaced by a + cursor. If you click (and do not drag to enlarge the box), it will deposit a zero bound box on your document. You cannot remove it with the delete key, escape key, or enter text, line, or fill changes. It can be removed by switching back to Text Selection mode. Use Rectangular Selection for cropping an area of a page that you want to retain after cropping.
Thank you for replying, the problem is not the Rectangular Selection mode. In whichever mode, there is a certain case that you can create a text box (text annotation) by just one click, that's why a lot of us accidentally click the pdf and then a text box got created, I searched online before and someone just answered that it's because preview tries to be smart, in that case it assumes you want to add some text. And they said they can turn off this function in the previous version of OSX, but not in EI Captain, so I am wondering where can we turn off this wired thing LOL.
Do you have any idea what triggers that "certain case" as I have tried everything and cannot get Preview to create a text annotation without actually clicking on the Text Annotation button?
If we can replicate it, we may be able to find a way to disable it--if it is part of Preview.
My guess is it is something interfering with Preview and causing that to happen. Do you have a Wacom tablet or some other input device other than a standard mouse and keyboard?
I found a PDF that I can make the annotation show.
I don't see anything in the preferences that would turn that on or off. There may be an entry that will, but I don't know how anyone would discover it.
If it is a problem in that the document becomes "edited," then use the Revert command to revert to a previous version or disable Versions.
FWIW, like Barney, I found some PDFs will do as you described and some behave normally. I suspect it has to do with which PDF specification was used when creating the PDF and not sure anything can be done about it.
How to stop preview from automatically creating text box?
