PDF txt copying

sdfuk · 31 Jan 2007 at 22:42

Hi

I have started receiving work via PDF documents and need a method of copy and pasting the PDF text into word. The easiest way I can see to do this is to buy the new Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard (but at a cost of £250 approx) via its OCR recognition.

Is there any other way of getting the txt out from a PDF file (which is seen as a picture by word)?

Thanks for any help
S

scratch · 31 Jan 2007 at 23:16

We use Able2Extract Pro at work from http://www.investintech.com

It's ~£60, but does a really great job of OCRing image-based PDF files. You can output the info into several different file formats. We use it to rip data out of scanned PDFs into Excel and it does a wonderful job and doesn't lose any of the formatting of the original document.

Andy

skanky · 31 Jan 2007 at 23:26

if i've understood what you're after correctly:

fire up adobe reader (the free one will do), click the select tool (should be to the right of the hand icon), highlight away!

i know its there in v7 and above, not sure about earlier versions..

james.miller · 31 Jan 2007 at 23:27

skanky said:
if i've understood what you're after correctly:

fire up adobe reader (the free one will do), click the select tool (should be to the right of the hand icon), highlight away!

i know its there in v7 and above, not sure about earlier versions..

bingo bongo! you can just right click on the document also.....or are there documents where you cant do this?

scratch · 1 Feb 2007 at 10:00

james.miller said:
bingo bongo! you can just right click on the document also.....or are there documents where you cant do this?

There are two types of PDF. One is text-based and with these you can copy and paste the text from the document (as long as the author has allowed it). The other is image-based; these are basically just scanned images in PDF format, and the only way to extract the data from them is to OCR it.

I'm working on the assumption that the OP is working with the latter.

Andy

photoshop · 1 Feb 2007 at 10:23

I have a utility at home which converts PDF documents into useable/editable .Doc files. I cant remember what its called from memory but its the best one i've used and i've used a few.
It keeps all the formatting and everything else exactly like it is on the PDF. There are no changes to the document. You can then edit/cut/copy and do what you like with it in word.

I'll look up what its called when i get home.