Preview App and Its Highlighting BUGS

mr_hi wrote:

right-click > Remove Highlight only works for the current page. I was using a pdf that was 796 pages. Do you think I want to go through every page of the document with this corrective?

You can revert to an old .pdf version via File > Revert to... > Browse all versions... > select desired old version > Restore (tested in Monterey but AFAIR newer versions behave the same).

There is a difference in using the Preview Annotation Highlight tool for purposely selected text, and pressing ⌘A to select all PDF document content. The latter does not produce additional PDF Annotation highlight, but a simple text selection which can be undone by clicking in any margin of the PDF. Previously applied PDF Annotation Highlights remain afterward.

VikingOSX wrote:

There is a difference in using the Preview Annotation Highlight tool for purposely selected text, and pressing ⌘A to select all PDF document content. The latter does not produce additional PDF Annotation highlight, but a simple text selection which can be undone by clicking in any margin of the PDF. Previously applied PDF Annotation Highlights remain afterward.

VikingOSX

You are right in principle, but I can confirm the issue that the OP mentioned.

To perhaps clarify:

• I usually highlight text by selecting and pressing Command-Control-H - that works fine
• If one presses Command-Control-H with no text selected, this "activates" the highlight tool
• Subsequently, it is enough to select any text, and it will be highlighted (no pressing of Command-Control-H is necessary)
• If in this situation one presses Command-A, then all text is selected AND highlighted.
• Undo does NOT return to the previous state.

Luis,

This distills to knowing how to use Preview… 😉 and still not a bug.

Following your bullet points, with everything Highlight annotated, one can right-click on any of the text containing the Highlight annotation and choose Remove Highlight from the secondary menu. All Highlighted text is undone including the most recent Highlight that you may want to keep.

Another approach to remove a given area of Highlighted text is use the mouse to select/drag over the specific unwanted Highlighted text and when you release the drag, the text reverts to normal again.

Tested: macOS Tahoe 26.1

As no Apple employees participate in these fellow user-supported and public communities, Apple is not going to see your comments here. If you want the macOS product team to know about your experience, then send direct, factual, and unemotional feedback to that product team, as they are responsible for Preview.