It would be useful if you gave us an exact page on site as an example and tell us what you are trying to copy, as I haven't had this issue with Firefox.

However, when in Firefox I suggest you try using Caret Browsing (toggle using F7) and also holding Ctrl while selecting text so that you can select many different sections of text at once.

Thanks Wil, Caret browser doesn't alter my Copy, so I've added picture of what's happening, where and the result. Kind regards, Hussar.

The latest stable and latest development versions of the built-in PDF viewer are available as an extension and these version can possibly perform better than the version shipped with the current Firefox release.

Latest development version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) extension (1.0.31):

• http://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/extensions/firefox/pdf.js.xpi

The latest stable version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) extension (0.8.649):

• PDF Viewer: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/pdfjs/

Hi Hussar, thank you for posting the screen shot.

If Firefox's built-in PDF viewer (even the updated version cor-el links to) doesn't work as well as Adobe's plugin, you can switch Firefox over to using that one using the steps in this article: View PDF files using Firefox’s built-in viewer.

I have the same problem when I try to copy the text, but everything copies fine if I download the PDF and open it with Adobe Acrobat/Adobe Reader. Try that if none of the PDF viewers cor-el or jscher2000 suggested work.

To do this there is a button at the top of the frame that the document is in (looks like a sheet of paper with an arrow on it). Click this and you will be prompted to open the PDF file or save it. You can then choose to open it with Adobe Acrobat/Reader or save it to your downloads folder, in which case you can open it by clicking the downloads button (the arrow in the top right of the browser window by default) and selecting it from the menu. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat or Adobe reader, you can download Adobe Reader here.

Sorry Chaps, no dice. Wil, the Sheet of paper with an arrow works fine, and it's quicker than my ham handed compromise. With 17,000 records to plough through every second helps. Thanks for your suggestions. Kind regards. Rob.

Did you try to use the Adobe Reader plugin in Firefox or try the latest developer build of the PDF Viewer as that seems to work for me although selecting text isn't always easy?

Yes, I believe I did, although I'm treading in 'unknown waters' (so could just be confused) they applied a different 'blue' mask which overlapped instead of leaving small gaps but didn't produce coherent text. Wil's solution, ante, gave the most time efficient result so far.