Overview
Highlight Text Patterns scans text on selected pages and applies markup annotations wherever your patterns match. You can highlight, underline, cross-out, or squiggle-underline the matched text, with full control over colours, pattern syntax, and page scope.
How to use
- Open a PDF document.
- Go to Plug-Ins > Highlights > Highlight Text Patterns.
- Enter one or more patterns in the text area (one pattern per line).
- Choose the pattern interpretation mode: Literal, Wildcards, or Regex.
- Select the annotation type and configure colour and matching options.
- Set the page range to process.
- Click OK to apply the annotations.
Pattern input
Enter one pattern per line. Each line may optionally begin with a hex colour
prefix in the format #RRGGBB: to override the default colour for
that specific pattern, e.g. #FF0000:overdue.
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Regex Library | Opens the Regex Library dialog to insert a saved regular expression. This button is enabled only when the Regex mode is selected. |
| Tooltip File | Loads a CSV file whose first column contains search patterns and whose additional columns provide tooltip text and colour overrides. Patterns from the file are appended to the existing list. |
Pattern interpretation mode
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Literal | Matches the exact text entered in each pattern line. |
| Wildcards | Uses * for any sequence of characters and ? for
a single character. |
| Regex | Uses C++ ECMAScript regular expression syntax for advanced matching. |
Matching options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Case sensitive | When checked, uppercase and lowercase letters must match exactly. |
| Whole words | Only matches complete words, not substrings within longer words. |
| Visible text only | Ignores hidden or clipped text and only annotates visible content. |
Annotation type
Choose the style of markup annotation to apply from the dropdown:
- Highlight
- Cross-out (strikeout)
- Underline
- Squiggle (wavy underline)
Colour source
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Default colour | Applies the colour selected via the colour picker button to all annotations that do not have a per-pattern colour override. |
| Use selected preference preset | Applies one of the active preference highlight colours (loaded from the Annotation Highlights toolbar presets) to all non-overridden patterns. This option is disabled if no active presets exist. |
Additional options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Remove previous tool highlights | Deletes annotations created by this tool on the selected pages before applying new ones. |
| Skip overlapping highlights | Skips a match if it would overlap an existing annotation on the page. |
Page range
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Current page | Processes only the active page in the viewer. |
| Pages from / to | Processes a range of pages. Enter start and end page numbers (1-based). Check To end to run from the start page to the last page of the document. |
Tip
Use the Regex Library to reuse common patterns across documents. When the Regex mode is active, click Regex Library to append a saved pattern to the list.
Note
All dialog settings (patterns, mode, page range, colours) are persisted between sessions and restored the next time you open the dialog.