PDF to text ?

J

J. Muir

Hello,

I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

TIA
 
B

Barbara de Zoete

I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

How about asking the author of the text for the original in whatever format is
current for you?

BTW: this has really nothing what so ever to do with alt.html. Find a better
newsgroup.


--
,-- --<--@ -- PretLetters: 'woest wyf', met vele interesses: ----------.
| weblog | http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/_private/weblog.html |
| webontwerp | http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/html/webontwerp.html |
|zweefvliegen | http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/html/vliegen.html |
`-------------------------------------------------- --<--@ ------------'
 
M

Mitja

Hello,

I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

Don't know about that. It is unfortunate that using pdf unlocking software
which removes the copy-paste restriction and can easily be found via
google (probably even for MacOS) is not legal... [clears throat]

Mitja
 
J

J. Muir

Barbara de Zoete said:
How about asking the author of the text for the original in whatever format
is
current for you?

BTW: this has really nothing what so ever to do with alt.html. Find a better
newsgroup.


Yea, I was wondering if this was too OT... but I reasoned that it
involves web site stuff, and web sites involve html... weak connection,
I know, but it's kinda-sorta there, isn't it? Besides, I couldn't find:
alt.pdftotext ; - )

I have googled this big time, and I just can not find an answer.

Thanks for the responses.
 
T

Toby Inkster

J. Muir said:
I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

A combination of the "ps2ascii" and "pdf2ps" tools which form part of
Ghostscript should do this. There is almost certainly a port for Mac OS X.
Not sure about OS 9 though.
 
J

Jonathan N. Little

Toby said:
J. Muir wrote:




A combination of the "ps2ascii" and "pdf2ps" tools which form part of
Ghostscript should do this. There is almost certainly a port for Mac OS X.
Not sure about OS 9 though.
Although probably the reason the text is in PDF format is that the
author did not want your to edit it, but one can always do a screen
capture and use an OCR program to convert to text in a pinch. Textbridge
for WinBoxes I am sure some comparable program for Mac
 
L

Louise Balmforth

Don't know about that. It is unfortunate that using pdf unlocking software
which removes the copy-paste restriction and can easily be found via
google (probably even for MacOS) is not legal... [clears throat]

Mitja

ROFLMAO

Louise
www.bratpack.org.uk
 
S

saz

Hello,

I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

TIA
I had a friend try to do this and sent it to me to see if I had any
luck. I quickly found out it was scanned image in pdf format.

Just checking, but is this an image?
 
D

dorayme

From: "J. Muir said:
I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

Assuming you are using Acrobat Reader, there is a text tool in the program
(no need to be online) at the top, it is a text cursor. I am not sure you
have tried this but probably you have? Next suggestion then:

Sometimes it works to change the "File type". You need to be able to see the
file name or icon (say on your desktop). Then get at the file type. I would
try TEXT if it is not already this. "Creator code" will be likely Acrobat
Reader. You can do make changes in the freely available ResEdit (but be
careful and do this on a copy and not on anything else on your machine). Or
get a useful little Mac utility called "TypeShuffler" from
http://www.bubblepop.com/ or elsewhere... There are millions of file type
and creator code utes around, Google up and grab one. They are an essential
tool.

dorayme
 
D

dorayme

The typeShuffler you need is version 1.1.1, all about 300K. I don't know if
the url I gave you before still have this version available. If you need it
and can't get it, I can dig it out for you and send...

dorayme
 
R

Roy Schestowitz

Jonathan said:
Although probably the reason the text is in PDF format is that the
author did not want your to edit it, but one can always do a screen
capture and use an OCR program to convert to text in a pinch. Textbridge
for WinBoxes I am sure some comparable program for Mac

Some PDF conversions that I came across didn't allow highlighting of text.
Even Acrobat Reader 7 (Linux) could not handle it. There is an option under
"File" for exporting the document as text. This does a tremendous job, but
the output is sometimes void.

Screen captures are tedious and they require some demanding software to do
text recognition. They will also suffer from equations, figures, etc. and
will not hold information about structure (e.g. nested bulletpoints).

My advice to you is to get hold of the source. It will take you less time
than that struggle with annoying PDF's. That's why some people prefer
sending the LaTeX around. If you want to view it, compile it on your
machine... as HTML (latex2html), as PostScript, as PDF, or whatever you
fancy.

Roy
 
D

data64

I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

We use a program called pdftotext to convert pdf files to something that our
search engine can digest. I know there is a version for Mac, but I have no
idea what it deals with pdf files that are marked as copy protected.

data64
 
D

dorayme

From: "J. Muir said:
I have a pdf file that is set so I can't copy and paste the text. Does
anyone know of a good Mac (OS 9.1) program that will convert a pdf file
to text? I tried the adobe online tool , but it didn't work.

Hoy there! Did any advice given here help you at all? How big is the file,
can it be seen by us? What are you using for reader? If Acrobat there is a
menu item that gives the permissions, have you looked at this for a start?

dorayme
 

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