What can I do with Live Text?

Live Text appears in the active document as dash-underlined text. When you hover over a Live Text instance, a blue drop down arrow icon displays to the right of the underlined text. You can then left-click to open a Live Text context menu of options. You can also use the Tools > Show Live Text and Actions menu option.

When you hover over Live Text and the cursor appearance changes, you can left-click the Live Text instance to start an action. If a default action has been assigned, the action runs. You can select or change the default action for this Live Text type. You can specify Live Text defaults using a preference page. For Accessibility, you can also use the Tools menu.

When you click on Live Text, and a single corresponding action has been defined for that Live Text (or a default has been set), the action results are displayed in a default window. If multiple actions are available for that Live Text, and no default has been assigned, you are prompted for which action to use. Additional prompts may appear in the status bar. If no action has been defined for that Live Text, you are prompted to select a default.

Note: When the active document in is Edit mode, Live Text is not available for action.
Note: Live Text strings are recognized in MIME messages.
  • Available actions

    Lists the available actions as choices.

  • Build a dashboard

    Enables you to open multiple widgets, in a single pane, to act on the Live Text based on content type.

    For example, if an auto-recognized zip code has three possible mapped widgets (a best local gasoline prices widget, a package tracking widget, and a weather conditions widget), this action opens a dialog prompting for which widgets to include in the dashboard. Make your selections and a new view opens containing all selected widgets.

  • Set Default Action for <variable>

    If no default action has been defined, a menu of possible options appears, from which you can make a default selection for the current session.

  • Display variable Properties

    Displays the available properties for this Live Text variable.

  • Stop Recognizing variable

    This turns off the Live Text display for this variable for the current session.

  • Recognize Live Text in this Document
    This toggles the underlining display of Live Text on and off for the current session.
    Note: This action is not available in MIME messages.
  • Live Text Preferences

    This opens the Live Text preferences panel for Live Text display in the current session.