Copy/paste connected shape in Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC has a “shape” called “Connected Lines” in the comments pane. I wanted to copy/paste and move one around. This was a pain in the neck. I wasn’t expecting it to be that hard.

I ran into three problems:

1 – Pasting only works in a certain mode

I select the shape with ctrl-C. If I press ctrl-v to paste, nothing happens. Why? Apparently because I have the comment feature open. If I open the stamp feature or click “close” so nothing is open, it does paste. Ok fine. Except…

2 – It doesn’t paste where I put the mouse cursor

When I get it to paste, it always seems to be the center middle of the screen towards the bottom. This is rarely where I want my pasted item. This would be a minor annoyance except

3. It doesn’t let me drag with the mouse

A text comment box, I can select with my mouse and drag where I want it. A connected shape changes the shape when I try to select it. I can use the arrow keys to move it but that is slow and tedious… Oh wait. I figured it out. If I mouse over very carefully to the center of the connected shape, my mouse turns into a drag icon and I can drag it with my mouse.

One thought on “Copy/paste connected shape in Acrobat Reader

  1. The key seems to be to save up the rebreaks and do them all at once in stamp mode. (I even copy/pasted a comment next to it so I didn’t have to switch modes)

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