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Preview 11.0: Notes in PDF acting strange

Hi All,

I've recently started using sticky notes in PDF files, via Preview 11.0 (MacOS 12.6).

I meet several challenges, wondering if the feature is unstable or if I am missing something:

  • When clicking on a note in the relevant side bar (highlights and notes), clicking on the note doesn't open it nor sends me to that note
  • At the same place, I can't delete a note. Clicking on it selects it, but deleting it has no effect. Selecting it and going to "Edit" shows me that "Delete" is greyed out.
  • Very often, I open a note (clicking on the small yellow square), it opens, but it never closes. No matter how much I scroll through pages, the note stays in front of everything.
  • When clicking on the top button to create a new note, it is very unclear where the note actually gets created.


Any guidance on how to better use notes on PDFs in Preview would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

MacBook Air

Posted on Oct 19, 2022 6:13 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 20, 2022 7:59 AM

I use plenty of annotations in Preview, but "sticky notes" is not something that I use often.

Since I am marking students' assignments, I prefer to type text annotations directly.


That said, I tried a few notes. (By the way, Command-Control-N is a handy keyboard shortcut).



I find that if you click and drag just a bit, you can then press delete and it will work.

If you simply click, it opens the note, and then of course delete just deletes the text in it, not the note itself.


To close an open note, just click outside the note.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 20, 2022 7:59 AM in response to junkan

I use plenty of annotations in Preview, but "sticky notes" is not something that I use often.

Since I am marking students' assignments, I prefer to type text annotations directly.


That said, I tried a few notes. (By the way, Command-Control-N is a handy keyboard shortcut).



I find that if you click and drag just a bit, you can then press delete and it will work.

If you simply click, it opens the note, and then of course delete just deletes the text in it, not the note itself.


To close an open note, just click outside the note.

Oct 20, 2022 8:18 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

So, I got an update... Problem partially resolved (and for that part, problem was between the chair and the keyboard...)

I was using a brand new MacBook Air, and the simple click when touching the touchpad wasn't enabled yet ;-)


So, my last issues is about deleting notes:

  • When clicking on a note from the relevant side bar, I can't delete a note. Clicking on it selects it, but deleting (backspace or actual delete key on a full apple keyboard) it has no effect. Selecting it and going to "Edit" shows me that "Delete" is greyed out.

Oct 20, 2022 8:10 AM in response to junkan

junkan wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to answer! Do you annotate with the simple text feature ( « A » icon in a rectangle)?


Yes, that is what I use (except that, instead of clicking that icon, I prefer to use the respective keyboard shortcut - Command-Control-T).


s for the issues I experience with creating notes, not be able to move them, … I’ll further investigate on my side


Let us know.

Preview 11.0: Notes in PDF acting strange

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