User Guide Cancel

PDF articles

Before you begin

We are rolling out a new, more intuitive product experience. If the screen shown here doesn’t match your product interface, switch to the help for your current experience.

About articles

Many traditional print documents, such as magazines and newspapers, arrange text in multiple columns. Stories flow from column to column and sometimes across several pages. While the format is effective for printed material, this type of structure can be difficult to follow on-screen because of the scrolling and zooming required.

The article feature enables you to guide readers through material presented in multiple columns and across a series of pages.

The flow of an article thread
The flow of an article thread. The user reads through text A, skips text B and C, and moves on to text A again.

Create articles

You create an article by defining a series of boxes around the content in the order in which you want the content read. The navigational path you define for an article is known as the article thread. You create a thread connecting the various boxes, unifying them into a continuous text flow.

Note:

Most desktop publishing programs allow you to generate article threads automatically as you convert the files to Adobe PDF. If the file you’re viewing has articles, you can show the names of the articles on a tab and navigate easily through them.  

  1. Open a PDF or a blank document. From the global bar in the upper left, select All tools and then select Edit a PDF

  2. From the left panel, under ADD CONTENT select More Article box. The pointer appears as a cross-hair pointer in the document window.

  3. Drag a rectangle to define the first article box. An article box appears around the enclosed text, and the pointer changes to the article pointer.

    Note:

    Each article box you create has a label that consists of the article number and its sequence within the article. For example, the first box for the first article is labeled 1-1, the second box 1-2, and so on. The boxes for the second article in the same document are labeled 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, and so on.

  4. Go to the next part of the document you want to include in the article, and draw a rectangle around that text. Repeat until you have defined the entire article.
    Note:

    To resize or move an article box, you must first end the article.

  5. Press Enter and then in the Article Properties dialog box that opens, enter the article title, subject, author, and any keywords to describe the article. Then, select OK.

View articles on a page

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat. From the global bar in the upper left, select All tools. Then select Edit a PDF.

  2. From the left panel, under ADD CONTENT select More Article box. The pointer appears as a cross-hair pointer in the document window.

View list of articles in a PDF

  1. Open the PDF for which you want to view the articles. 

  2. (Windows) From the hamburger menu   in the upper left, select View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Articles.

    (macOS) From the upper left, select View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Articles.

    It displays a right panel with the list of articles on the page.

Read an article in a PDF

  1. Open the PDF for which you want to view the articles. 

  2. (Windows) From the hamburger menu   in the upper left, select View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Articles.

    (macOS) From the upper left, select View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Articles.

  3. From the Articles panel that opens, select the article you want to read, then select Options   > Read Article.

Note:

To hide the Articles panel after the article opens, select Options > Hide After Use.

Delete an article or article box

  1. Open the PDF for which you want to delete an article or article box.

  2. (Windows) From the hamburger menu   in the upper left, select View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Articles.

    (macOS) From the upper left, select View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Articles.

  3. To delete the entire article, select the article in the Articles panel and press Delete.

  4. To delete only one box from an article, right-click the box and then select Delete. Then, in the warning message, select Box.

    If you select Article, the entire article is deleted.

Note:

After deleting an article or article boxes, the remaining articles or article boxes are automartically renumbered. 

Insert an article box into an article thread

  1. In the Document window, select the article box that you want the new article box to follow.
  2. Select the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the selected box. When prompted to drag and create a new article box, select OK. 

    An example of selecting an article with the Article tool
    An example of selecting an article with the Article tool

  3. Draw a new article box. The new box is inserted into the article flow, and all following boxes are renumbered.

Move an article box

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat. From the global bar in the upper left, select All tools. Then select Edit a PDF.

  2. From the left panel, under ADD CONTENT select More Article box. The pointer appears as a cross-hair pointer in the document window.

  3. Select the numbers written in the article box and drag them to the new location.

Resize an article box

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat. From the global bar in the upper left, select All tools. Then select Edit a PDF.

  2. From the left panel, under ADD CONTENT select More Article box. The pointer appears as a cross-hair pointer in the document window.

  3. To resize the box, drag a center handle to change only height or width or drag a corner handle to change both dimensions.

    An example of resizing an article box
    An example of resizing an article box

Edit article properties

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat. From the global bar in the upper left, select All tools. Then select Edit a PDF.

  2. From the left panel, under ADD CONTENT select More Article box. The pointer appears as a cross-hair pointer in the document window.

  3. Right-click the box and select Properties.

  4. Change the information in the Articles Properties dialog box and select OK.

Combine two articles

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat. From the global bar in the upper left, select All tools. Then select Edit a PDF.

  2. From the left panel, under ADD CONTENT select More Article box. The pointer appears as a cross-hair pointer in the document window.

  3. In the document pane, select any article box in the article you want to be read first.
  4. Select the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the article box, and then in the dialog that appears, select OK.

  5. Ctrl-click an article box you want to be read next. The second article is appended to the end of the first article. All article boxes in the piece are renumbered automatically.

Get help faster and easier

New user?