PDF File Conversion?

[John Gregory]

I have a 150 page pdf file of instructions I plan to use as a guide for
self-directed instruction on using a very busy program; Fidelity's Active
Trader Pro. I'd like to be able to convert the thing to a Word 2003 document
but can't find anything in Word's Help file that addresses it. It looks like
..pdf isn't an extension that's convertible.

A quick search on the net yields a number of programs that appear to do
this. I have no idea what's the best way - and safest - way to approach this
task (I'm always leery of downloading anything).

Can someone please give me some advice on how to make this conversion to
Word, what outside software I should be looking at if necessary, and any
other way of getting that pdf file into a more manageable form. Something
that would allow comments to be made right on the file as I read it would
also be of possible help.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello John

I have a 150 page pdf file of instructions I plan to use as a guide for
self-directed instruction on using a very busy program; Fidelity's Active
Trader Pro. I'd like to be able to convert the thing to a Word 2003 document
but can't find anything in Word's Help file that addresses it. It looks like
.pdf isn't an extension that's convertible.

A quick search on the net yields a number of programs that appear to do
this. I have no idea what's the best way - and safest - way to approach this
task (I'm always leery of downloading anything).

Can someone please give me some advice on how to make this conversion to
Word, what outside software I should be looking at if necessary, and any
other way of getting that pdf file into a more manageable form. Something
that would allow comments to be made right on the file as I read it would
also be of possible help.

There's a bunch of applications, from freeware up to the full version of
Adobe Acrobat, that can convert a given PDF to DOC or RTF (which you can
load in Word). Look for "PDF2DOC" or "PDF2RTF" with the search engine of
your choice.

The "quality" of the result varies a lot and depends on the simplicity
of the layout of the PDF (for instance, 2- or 3-row layout will usually
result in 3 textboxes in Word); and of the things you have in mind to do
with the document in Word. Be prepared _not_ to get a good Word document
in terms of usability (not "good" compared to something you build for
yourself), in terms of "structural information" (something discussed in
here when dealing with good template design).

Usually, if you need to update a PDF, you are already on the wrong
track: get hold of the original file *before* it was converted to PDF
and update it in its host application.

2cents
Robert

 

[anon k]

I have a 150 page pdf file of instructions I plan to use as a guide for
self-directed instruction on using a very busy program; Fidelity's Active
Trader Pro. I'd like to be able to convert the thing to a Word 2003 document

Can someone please give me some advice on how to make this conversion to
Word, what outside software I should be looking at if necessary, and any
other way of getting that pdf file into a more manageable form. Something
that would allow comments to be made right on the file as I read it would
also be of possible help.

If there's no access to the original document, I'd use for Ghostscript
to extract the text and any illustrations, and format the output into a
brand-new Word document that you'd thereafter use as the working file.

One reason why I'd take this approach is that converters from pdf to
Word, rtf or whatever can be fickle if there is a lot of formatting to
negotiate. It is often faster to do all of that yourself than to hunt
out and try out a dozen or more conversion programs before you find one
that you like, only to find that it did something odd. Ghostscript is
at least fairly predictable.

The biggest downside that I see is that Ghostscript works best from the
command line. Not all users like that.

 

[Paul]

Its not very elegant but you could try using Microsoft Office Document
Imaging (included in the Office 2003 tools). As you already have this its
worth giving it a try before shelling out on another program.

1. Open the pdf file in Adobe Reader
2. Choose Print from the File menu and set the printer to Microsoft Office
Document Image Writer - you will be asked for a filename and whether you
want to save as MDI or TIF (I don't think the format makes a difference for
this exercise).
3. Open the file you just saved using Microsoft Office Document Imaging
(should be under Office Tools on the Programs menu)
4. Use the OCR button on the toolbar (icon is an eye over a page) - it'll
probably take a couple of minutes for a doc that long - then use the button
to the right which is Output to Word.

There doesn't seem to be much promotion of the Microsoft Office Document
Imaging tool - I came across it by accident but I think it is great - good
for quick and easy scanning (much better than the Epson software my scanner
came with) and the scanned images get indexed MSN Desktop Search so its a
doddle to find files.

Hope this helps

Paul