Abstract: Methods and apparatus for determining which displayed content, e.g., text, of a PDF document is selected and then taking an action based on the text selection, e.g., highlighting, coping, or editing the selected text. The methods and apparatus take into consideration potentially differences between text position and/or size differences between rendered and displayed page content and text position and/or size information obtained from performing a text extraction operation on the content of a PDF document. By combining extracted text information with post-render information corresponding to individual DOM elements in synthesized text elements and then storing the information in an easily access data structure, accurate identification of selected text characters can be made in a relatively fast manner using a browser implemented application.