macospreview
I used to open the annotations toolbar and I could select, for example, the arrow tool. Then I would click from A to B and draw the arrow.
Now when I click the arrow tool it plops an arrow on the screenshot and I have to manually drag both ends.
This seems like extra work compared to the old way, what am I likely to have done to have caused this and what can I do to fix it?
After selecting the text, place your three fingers on the trackpad and don't drag for a half-second or so. Then, slowly drag your fingers until you see the I-beam cursor turn into the mouse pointer. Then you can three-finger drag normally.
When using click and drag for text, you need to hold the click for a half-second or so before the system realizes you want to drag the text instead of selecting it. This procedure replicates that with the three-finger drag gesture. (As you get better at this place-hold-slow-fast gesture, you can speed it up to a point where you're comfortable with the speed and it still works.)
I could not find a way to do this using Preview. I tried to cheat by using the line drawing tool, and setting the color to a transparent yellow. Unfortunately, Preview doesn't seem to allow transparency with its shape tools. (To see what I mean, draw a line, then bring up the color picker window and move the Opacity slider around -- it's either all or nothing.)
As an alternative, I suggest Adobe Reader (I receive no commission). Its text highlighter has the same limitation as Preview's, but its line drawing tool supports transparency. Open up the Comment pane on the right, then the Drawing Markups section. Right click on the line tool and select Tool Default Properties to change the lines' color, opacity, and thickness. You also might want to enable Keep Tool Selected so you can quickly highlight multiple areas.
Instead of the line tool, you might prefer the rectangle tool. Follow the same steps as before, but additionally set the Fill Color to be the same as the Color (and make sure the Transparent checkbox is NOT selected for the Fill Color).
Best Answer
I just tested this. Clicking the Arrow tool does indeed simply add an arrow instead of having you drag it out first.
I rarely if ever use the Annotate toolbar, so I am certain I have not made any changes that would have caused this. More likely, the upgrade to Yosemite changed how this tool works.