Move or edit an object

A selected object usually shows a bounding box. Selection handles appear when the pointer is over the object. When the pointer is over a locked object, no selection handles appear. When you select multiple objects, the last object you select becomes the anchor and appears red; the others appear blue. The anchor object remains stationary during alignment operations.

To make another object in the selection the anchor object, Ctrl/Option-click the new target object twice, once to remove the object from the selection, and once to add it back to the selection. As the last object added to the selection, it becomes the anchor object.

When objects of the same type are selected and the selection covers multiple pages, you can change the appearance of the objects but not move them.

When you edit a text box, the entire text box is selected; however, the TouchUp Object tool cannot select individual characters that are part of larger text blocks. You must use the TouchUp Text tool to edit individual characters and words.

Use the Select Object tool to select and move objects such as form fields and links.

Use the TouchUp Object tool to select and move placed images, text blocks, and embedded objects.

Select an object

  1. Select one or more objects:

    • Click the object with the TouchUp Object tool  (Tools > Advanced Editing).

    • Click the object with the Select Object tool , or with the tool you used to create the object.

    • Right-click/Control-click the object and choose Select All from the context menu. If the Select Object tool is active and the document uses single page layout, all objects on the current page are selected. If the document is in any other page layout, all objects in the document are selected. If a tool on the Advanced Editing toolbar is active, all objects of that type in the document are selected.

    • Drag to create a rectangle around the desired objects. If the Select Object tool is active, all objects within the rectangle are selected. If an Advanced Editing tool is active, press Ctrl as you drag; all objects of the tool type within the rectangle are selected.

  2. (Optional) Add one or more objects to the current selection:

    • Ctrl/Option-click an object.

    • Shift-click to add a range of objects. (The Select Object tool includes all objects when you Shift-click.) Using Shift selects all items that lie within the rectangular bounding box formed by all items in the selection (including the item that was just added).

Move an object

  1. Click the object with the TouchUp Object tool , the Select Object tool, or the tool used to create the object.
  2. Move the image or object:

    • Drag the object to the desired location. Objects cannot be dragged to a different page (you can cut and paste them to a new page instead). Shift-drag the object to constrain movement up or down, or right or left.

    • Right-click/Control-click the image and choose an option to move the image on the page.

Resize an object

  1. Click the object with the TouchUp Object tool , the Select Object tool , or with the tool used to create it.
  2. Drag a handle of the object. Shift-drag the handle to retain the original aspect ratio.

Clip an object

  1. Select the TouchUp Object tool .
  2. Right-click/Control-click the object, and choose Set Clip. When you hold the pointer over the selection, the clipping icon  appears.
  3. Drag a selection handle in the direction you want until the clip rectangle displays the results you want.
  4. Click inside the selection to exit the clipping mode.

Edit an object using the TouchUp Object tool

  1. Choose Tools > Advanced Editing > TouchUp Object tool.
  2. Select the object, right-click/Control-click the selection, and choose one of the following:
    Option Description
    Place Image

    Embeds an image file in the PDF.

    Set Clip

    Sets a clipping region for the object, if one exists.

    Delete Clip

    Delete Clip deletes objects that are clipping the selected object. For example, if you scale text and the resulting characters are clipped, selecting this option shows you the complete characters. This option appears only if you chose Set Clip.
    Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical

    Flip Horizontal flips the image horizontally, on the vertical axis. Flipping text blocks horizontally creates a mirror effect. Flip Vertical flips the image vertically, on the horizontal axis.
    Create Artifact

    Removes the object from the reading order so it isn’t read by a screen reader or the Read Out Loud command.
    Edit Image, Edit Object

    Starts the image editor or object editor you specify in the TouchUp preferences. Edit Image is available when a vector image is selected; Edit Object is available when a bitmap image is selected. Selecting these options removes tags from the PDF which may change how the PDF reflows and affect accessibility. For example, changing the location of an object affects the order in which that object (or its alternate text) is read by a screen reader.
    Rotate Clockwise, Rotate Counterclockwise, Rotate Selection

    Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Counterclockwise rotate the selected object ninety degrees in the indicated direction. Rotate Selection lets you rotate the selection incrementally by dragging a selection handle in the direction you choose. You must click inside the selection to exit the rotate mode.
    TouchUp Properties

    Lets you edit properties for the content, tag, and text, such as adding alternate text to an image to make it accessible.

Start an image editor using the TouchUp Object tool

By default, the TouchUp Object tool starts Adobe Photoshop (if installed) to edit images and objects. To use a different editing application, specify the application in the TouchUp preferences. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat > Preferences (Mac OS), and select TouchUp on the left side of the Preferences dialog box. Click Image Editor (for bitmap images) or Page/Object Editor, (for vector images) and select the application on your hard drive.

  1. Using the TouchUp Object tool, select the image or object or Shift-click to select multiple images or objects. If you change the object selection, the editing session terminates.
    To edit all the images and objects on the page, right-click/Control-click the page, and choose Edit Page.
  2. Right-click/Control-click the selection, and choose Edit Image or Edit Object. (The available command depends on what is selected.)
    Note: If the image can’t open in Adobe Photoshop, verify that Photoshop is configured correctly. If a message asks whether to convert to ICC profiles, choose Don’t Convert. If the image window displays a checkerboard pattern when it opens, the image data could not be read.
  3. Make the desired changes in the external editing application.
  4. If you are working in Photoshop, flatten the image.

    If you change the dimensions of the image in Photoshop, the image may not align correctly in the PDF. Also, transparency information is preserved only for masks that are specified as index values in an indexed color space. Image masks are not supported. If you change image modes while editing the image, you may lose valuable information that can be applied only in the original mode.

  5. In the editing application, choose File > Save. The object is automatically updated and displayed in the PDF when you bring Acrobat to the foreground.
    Important: For Photoshop, if the image is in a format supported by Photoshop 6.0 or later, your edited image is saved back into the PDF. However, if the image is in an unsupported format, Photoshop handles the image as a generic PDF image, and the edited image is saved to disk instead of back into the PDF.