How to Unlock Highlight in PDF Document - Complete Guide

Imagine, what if you can’t highlight text in PDF, it certainly brings bad consequences. There are various reasons which cause this pesky problem. Some of these include image-based text and document protection. Moreover, it prevents viewers from accessing PDFs to highlight the text and add other annotations. Now, follow this informative guide to discover how to unlock highlight in PDF documents. Here, we will explain the common reasons and best methods for unlocking text highlighting in a PDF file. 

Why is My PDF Not Highlighting Text?

If you’re struggling to highlight content in PDF, it can be frustrating, especially when reviewing or analyzing the bullet points. Various reasons limit document accessibility and prevent viewers from highlighting, editing, text copying, adding comments, and more. Below are the common factors why PDF unable to highlight content:

• Scanned PDF Document: If the PDF highlighting feature is not working, it mainly occurs when it is a scanned document. Moreover, it only contains image-based text, preventing users to highlight or mark up the important text. 

• This PDF is Secured: Document owners put protection or permissions on PDF to limit the access. These restrictions cause barriers for viewers. Moreover, you can’t select, copy, or highlight text without removing security. 

• Corrupted PDF Document: Sometimes the document is corrupted or becomes inaccessible due to improper downloading. In this case, PDF text turns into unreadable data that requires advanced tools to retrieve content. 

Overall, these are the common reasons why you might struggle when highlighting the text. Moreover, if the document contains image-based text, you can use online OCR tools to convert the scanned text into searchable or selectable content. In this way, you can unlock highlights in PDF documents. 

On the other hand, if the PDF is faulty or corrupted, you need to immediately fix the file corruption. To recover the text from the corrupted document, try powerful and secure software like SysTools PDF Recovery Tool. Using this robust tool, you can effectively scan or read the data. Moreover, it allows you to extract images, text, and necessary information in the original formatting with ease. 

Now, let’s find out the other methods to unlock PDF to highlight content. 

How to Unlock Highlight in PDF - Try Online PDF Unlocking Tools 

Earlier we explained the common reasons why PDF unable to select in PDF documents. Whether the document is scanned or corrupted, you can try the above solutions for unlocking PDF highlighting instantly. Despite these issues, sometimes owners restrict PDF accessibility to prevent viewers from modifying or highlighting the text. 

If the PDF is locked, try online PDF unlocking tools like iLovePDF, Smallpdf, PDF24 Tools, Sejda PDF, and more. These free online tools are available for unlocking PDF restrictions or password security. Moreover, these web-based platforms have features to remove document passwords or owner-level permissions in batch mode. 

Most importantly, there is no need to depend on third-party software or lengthy sign-ups. Additionally, you can drop large PDFs regardless of file size. Here are the step-by-step instructions for how to unlock highlight in PDF using online tools:

1. Visit online tools like the Smallpdf website. 

2. Use Choose Files to upload protected PDFs. 

3. Enter the required passwords > press Unlock. 

4. Lastly, download the unprotected document. 

5. Now, open it and highlight the necessary content. 

Fortunately, online tools are free, fast, and offer batch processing. Using these platforms, you can regain access to highlight or add document annotation instantly. However, there are major flaws, you need to keep in mind before using online services. 

Limitations of Free Online PDF Tool: Uploading the PDF online unlocks the potential risk of data compromise and misuse. Moreover, online platforms aren’t a reliable or secure way to unlock protection or security. Additionally, it can cause formatting errors when removing the security so, look for professional software for unlocking PDF highlight protection. 

How to Unlock Highlight in PDF Document - SysTools PDF Unlocking Tool 

If you’re wondering how to unlock PDF to highlight or access the document, use SysTools PDF Unlocker Tool, one of the most robust and powerful software for unlocking the document restriction status. This advanced tool is designed for Windows or Mac OS users to manage PDFs without security. Using this trusted utility, you can remove different modes of protection including password and owner security.  

Moreover, it allows you to disable PDF permissions like editing, content copying, printing, and more. After removing these restrictions, you can regain access to enable highlighting and text copying without any data loss or tampering. Most importantly, this software is highly secure compared to online tools. 

Additionally, you won’t need to depend on any third-party applications to unlock highlights in PDF documents. Now, let’s break down the step-by-step guidance to use this advanced tool. 

Quick Guide for How to Unlock PDF to Highlight

1. Open SysTools PDF Unlocking Software on your system. 

2. Move to the Add Files feature to upload the required files. 

3. Under Password > enter the necessary credentials. 

4. From the below options pick > Save > Change button. 

5. Lastly, use the Unlock key to disable document protection. 

6. Now, open the unsecured file > highlight content from PDF.

By following the above steps, you can easily get the required access to the document. Unlike online tools, this is a better approach and professional-grade solution for unlocking PDFs for highlighting, editing, content copying, and printing. Additionally, it helps to preserve the PDF elements or formatting throughout the process. So, download this tool when facing challenges to unlock PDF to highlight or modify the document. 

Concluding Words 

In the following guide, we have discussed the methods for how to unlock highlight in PDF documents. From scanned PDFs to corruption, there are various reasons behind PDFs won’t highlight the text. Here, you can use OCR and SysTools Recovery PDF tools for accessing the document for text highlighting. 

Besides this, if the document is protected then, you need SysTools PDF unlocking software to unlock PDF to highlight instantly. This tool allows users to remove unwanted restrictions and password security in batch mode. After unlocking the protection, you can access the document for different purposes such as editing, highlighting, and content copying.