Description

It is a standard document with searchable texts and all operations are allowed (no security restrictions), but highlighting and all editing functions are disabled.

Causes

This is probably related to the following two cases:

A PDF/A compliant PDF file is opened in PDF/A view mode in Foxit PDF Editor

PDF file is opened under Protected View mode in Foxit PDF Editor

Solutions

Solution for the first case "A PDF/A compliant PDF file is opened in PDF/A view mode in Foxit PDF Editor":

For the first case, document opened in PDF/A view mode is read-only. Most editing functions under this mode are disabled to prevent modifications on PDF file. To enable editing on PDF/A compliant file, you can complete it in the following ways:

Activate Enable Editing in the bubble pop-up

Change PDF/A View Mode via Preferences

Activate Enable Editing in the bubble pop-up

When a PDF/A compliant document is opened, a bubble message appears at the top right corner of the document area shown as below.  Click on Enable Editing, accept the change by clicking on Yes. 

In some cases, the notification messages in Foxit PDF Editor were set not to show PDF/A message again under General tab in Preferences window. There would not be any bubble message appearing even when a PDF/A compliant file is opened under PDF/A view mode. Then you should turn off PDF/A view mode via Preferences.

Change PDF/A View Mode via Preferences

If you have a lot of PDF/A standardized documents to process routinely and want to improve your productivity, you can set up your application to never open PDF/A document in read-only mode, so that you can directly open and edit it. 

In your Foxit PDF Editor application, go to File > Preferences > Documents, change View document in PDF/A mode to Never, click on OK to apply the change. 

Solution for the second case "PDF file is opened under Protected View mode in Foxit PDF Editor":

For the second case, PDF file opened under Protected view mode is read-only. Most functions are disabled under Protected View mode to help protect your computers from being harmed by files originated from potentially unsafe locations. The protected view feature is only available in V9.0.1 and greater versions. Before you highlight and edit on PDF document, you have to turn off the Protected View mode in bubble pop-up message or Preferences window.You could turn off Protected View mode in following two ways:

Turn off protected view mode for current PDF file in the bubble pop-up

Turn off Protected View Mode via Preferences

1）Turn off protected view mode for current PDF file in the bubble pop-up

When you open a PDF file under protected view mode, a bubble message would appear at the upper right corner of the document area as shown below.  Click on Enable All Features to turn off protected view mode temporarily for the PDF file opened in the current tab.

In some cases, the notification messages in Foxit PFD Editor cwere set not to show the message which affects the next step under General tab in Preferences window. There would not be any bubble message appearing even when a PDF file is opened under protected mode. Then you should turn off protected view mode via Preferences.

2）Turn off protected view mode via Preferences

To set up your application to never open PDF document in protected view mode, please go to File > Preferences > Security, select Off under Protected View, click on OK to apply the change. 

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