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I am currently viewing PDF files in firefox. What can do to just highlight a few parts of my pdf using some add-ons OR anything?

I just want to highlight the SELECTED part in the screenshot attached below

I just want to highlight the SELECTED part in the screenshot attached below
Attached screenshots

Modified by sbsaismaran

Chosen solution

Hi sbsaismaran, unfortunately the built-in PDF viewer is considered an internal feature of Firefox, so add-ons are not able to interact with the documents in the viewer. This has been particularly painful for users who like to use translation add-ons in the viewer.

Question: Do you want to highlight some text for immediate reference, or do you need to edit and re-save the PDF? If you need to make an edit to the PDF file and save that to disk, you probably need some more powerful software.

Web App PDF Viewer

Your screenshot shows that you are viewing a PDF from your own computer. There is a webapp version of the PDF viewer that you can use to view PDFs from your computer (they are processed locally, not uploaded). Add-ons can modify pages in the webapp version.

https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/viewer.html

On the viewer's black toolbar, you'll see a new icon, a folder with an upward pointing arrow. Click that to open your locally saved PDF. Now add-ons should be able to interact with the text in the viewer, so if there is a highlighter add-on you like, it may work.

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Thank you for your submission. It appears that your screenshot didn't upload. Would you please reattach it to this question?

There you go

What happens if you try to click and drag your cursor over the text you want to highlight?

Would you please also provide the version of FireFox are you using?

Thank you

I'm going to assume that this is not a situation where you can highlight one the screen by using the cursor and your mouse or touchpad to temporarily highlight the text and taking a screenshot (Firefox does have Screenshot app). If you are looking to format the text with highlight, I think you may want to use another pdf reader.

To change the default reader for viewing PDF files in Firefox, follow these steps:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and click Options (Preferences for Linux or Mac).
  2. In the Options (or Preferences) tab, select the Applications panel.
  3. In the Search field, type PDF to find the Portable Document Format (PDF) entry.
  4. Use the drop-down menu for that entry under the Action column, to select your favorite PDF reader. To view PDF files in Firefox, choose Preview in Firefox.

For more information, see View and edit PDF files using Firefox’s built-in viewer.

Did this fix your problem? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

Chosen Solution

Hi sbsaismaran, unfortunately the built-in PDF viewer is considered an internal feature of Firefox, so add-ons are not able to interact with the documents in the viewer. This has been particularly painful for users who like to use translation add-ons in the viewer.

Question: Do you want to highlight some text for immediate reference, or do you need to edit and re-save the PDF? If you need to make an edit to the PDF file and save that to disk, you probably need some more powerful software.

Web App PDF Viewer

Your screenshot shows that you are viewing a PDF from your own computer. There is a webapp version of the PDF viewer that you can use to view PDFs from your computer (they are processed locally, not uploaded). Add-ons can modify pages in the webapp version.

https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/viewer.html

On the viewer's black toolbar, you'll see a new icon, a folder with an upward pointing arrow. Click that to open your locally saved PDF. Now add-ons should be able to interact with the text in the viewer, so if there is a highlighter add-on you like, it may work.