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Acrobat

How to strike through in 5 easy steps.

Learn how to use the strikethrough tool in PDFs to edit and mark text efficiently.

Explore Adobe Acrobat

An extreme close-up of a pen striking through "I Agree" on a document, with a shallow depth of field.

Published by Adobe Acrobat India on 22 April 2025

PDF Editing, Document Management

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How to strike through text in a PDF in 5 easy steps

How to remove a strikethrough in a PDF

Using a shortcut for strikethrough

Alternative method: Striking through text in Word before converting to PDF

Why use strikethrough in a PDF?

Take your PDF editing further

Frequently asked questions

Striking through text in a PDF file is a simple yet powerful way to indicate changes, suggest revisions, or mark content for removal while keeping the original text visible. Whether you're collaborating on a business document, reviewing academic research, or proofreading a report, the strikethrough text feature helps maintain clarity and streamline your workflow. This guide will walk you through how to strike through text in a PDF, remove a strikethrough, and explore additional editing tools using Adobe Acrobat.

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How to strike through text in a PDF in 5 easy steps.

Step 1: Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat.

First, open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat online services or Adobe Acrobat desktop version.

Step 2: Access the comment tool.

Navigate to the Tools menu and select Comment.
This will open the Comment toolbar, where you can find various markup options.

Step 3: Select the strikethrough tool.

Click on the T icon with a line through it, which represents the Strikethrough Text tool.
If using the markup toolbar, select Strikethrough text directly.

Step 4: Apply strikethrough to the desired text.

Click and drag your cursor over the text you want to mark.
The selected text will be crossed out, clearly indicating the revision.

Once you've applied strikethrough to the necessary sections, you can:

Add comments to explain the edit.
Save the PDF by clicking File > Save.
Share the document with collaborators for review.

How to remove a strikethrough in a PDF.

If you need to undo a strikethrough, follow these simple steps:

Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
Click on the text with a strikethrough.
Press Delete or right-click and select Delete Annotation.
Save your document to apply the changes.

Documents on a wooden desk labeled as Draft, Proofread, Approved, and Finalized.

Using a shortcut for strikethrough.

For users who frequently need to strike through text, using a shortcut for strikethrough can speed up the process:

Windows: There is no direct strikethrough shortcut in Adobe Acrobat, but you can quickly access it by selecting text and using the Comment toolbar.
Mac: Similarly, the markup toolbar provides a fast way to apply strike through text in a few clicks.

Alternative method: Striking through text in Word before converting to PDF.

If you prefer to apply strikethrough in Microsoft Word before converting your document to PDF:

Open your Word document.
Select the text you want to strike through.
Click the strikethrough button (ab) in the formatting toolbar.
Save the document and convert it to PDF.
The strikethrough formatting will be retained in the final PDF.

Why use strikethrough in a PDF?

Applying strikethrough text in PDFs is beneficial for:

Collaborative editing – teams can review and suggest edits without deleting original text.
Academic proofreading – mark errors or unnecessary content for revision.
Legal and business documents – track changes while keeping original content visible.
Maintaining version control – easily see what has been changed in an evolving document.

Take your PDF editing further.

Now that you know how to strike out text in Adobe Acrobat, explore other features to enhance your workflow:

Merge multiple PDFs to consolidate documents.
Highlight and underline text to add emphasis.
Use the Edit tool to make direct text changes within PDFs.
With Adobe Acrobat’s powerful PDF editing tools, you can efficiently collaborate, review, and finalise documents with ease.

Frequently asked questions.

Can I customise the appearance of a strikethrough in Adobe Acrobat?

Yes, Adobe Acrobat allows you to customise the colour and opacity of strikethrough text. Simply right-click on the strikethrough annotation, select Properties, and adjust the settings to fit your preferences.

Is there a way to filter or track all strikethrough annotations in a PDF?

Yes, you can view all strikethrough annotations in a document by opening the Comments List in the right-hand panel of Adobe Acrobat. This provides an overview of all comments, including strikethroughs, allowing for easy tracking and management.

Can I export a list of all strikethrough edits from my PDF?

Absolutely - Adobe Acrobat allows you to export all comments, including strikethroughs, into a summary report. Navigate to Comments > Summarise Comments to generate a report that can be shared with collaborators.

Does the strikethrough feature work on scanned PDFs?

Strikethrough can be applied to text in scanned PDFs if Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has been used to convert the scanned content into editable text. Use Adobe Acrobat’s Scan & OCR tool to enable text selection before applying strikethrough.

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