Don't Open That .pdf File!
Looks like the trusty old Acrobat Reader we all use to open .pdf files has a security flaw in it. Apparently you can initiate malicious script and such by using it and it's recommended to not open .pdf files until the problem is taken care of.
Boy, now even Acrobat Reader is a potential entry point for hackers. Is nothing sacred anymore?
Thanks to Kim Kommando's News of the Day newsletter, which I seem to just recently started receiving, for the tip. I don't recall ever opting in for that newsletter, but I've found it offers some interesting tech news.
I've subscribed to Kim's Tip of the Day newsletter for quite some time. It seems to deal much of the time with issues I'm not all that interested in, like picture albums and music, but there's enough stuff I'm interested in to keep me on that list.
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posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:29 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Agreed, Steve. They are a pain.
Why can't you copy text from PDFs? Few are ever locked. Both Adobe Acrobat Reader and Preview (I'm on a Mac) allow you to copy text and images.
Doing pdf copying requires learning to use Acrobat tools. That's more ability and skill than the typical "I want it all right now" complainers have.
As much as I regret the "tone" that 2:06 has chosen, the "content" of the message is accurate.
In Adobe Acrobat, check the tool icons on the toolbar at the top of the screen. Let your cursor hover over them. A box will appear, telling you what the icon does. You want the one that says "select text." Choosing that icon will allow you to use the cursor to select text (highlight it) so you can right-click your mouse (in Windows) and choose to copy it and so forth.
I've written this from memory, so slight imperfections may have crept in, uninvited. Good Luck! It's worth a try.
Fred,
I don't even have Adobe's resource hog installed on my PC. I use the free Reader from Foxit Software — http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ — and they have some other, cheaper alternatives to Adobe's pay .pdf apps.
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