Text acts like a picture - can't edit

[llach]

I can't edit a document in Word 2007. I have saved it in 2007 and in 2003,
but either way, it acts like a "picture", and I can't edit it. HELP!

 

[JoAnn Paules]

Where did you get that document from? Do you have an expired trial verion of
Word?

 

[llach]

I can't edit a document in Word 2007. I have saved it in 2007 and in 2003,
but either way, it acts like a "picture", and I can't edit it. HELP!

The document is a copy of a law from the county web site. It was a .pdf
converted to a .doc. And no, my Word isn't a trail version, it's the full
paid version.

 

[llach]

The document is a copy of a law from the county web site. It was a .pdf
converted to .doc. And my Word is a full version, fully paid.

Where did you get that document from? Do you have an expired trial verion of
Word?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"

I can't edit a document in Word 2007. I have saved it in 2007 and in 2003,
but either way, it acts like a "picture", and I can't edit it. HELP!

 

[JoAnn Paules]

How was it converted? I suspect it was done as a screenshot rather than with
Acrobat.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"

The document is a copy of a law from the county web site. It was a .pdf
converted to .doc. And my Word is a full version, fully paid.

Where did you get that document from? Do you have an expired trial verion
of
Word?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"

I can't edit a document in Word 2007. I have saved it in 2007 and in
2003,
but either way, it acts like a "picture", and I can't edit it. HELP!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

There are two kinds of PDFs, those created from documents with editable text
and those created by scanning, where each page is in fact just a picture.

 

[llach]

Then there is no hope for me and this document? It can't be edited?

 

[Vicki_g]

Can you access the original PDF from the web site and copy it all and then
paste into a new Word document? You'll have to reformat it, but at least you
can work with it. I had to do that twice today (and it wasn't much fun either
time!)

 

[llach]

Thanks, Vicki. I think I've tried that and everything else under the sun.
But maybe I don't understand what "reformat" means. Please explain, and I
can tellif I've done it.

 

[grammatim]

You can save it as is, and if it's a "screen shot" sort of pdf, you
can run it through the OCR software that's included in Office (or that
came with your scanner).

But since it's a law, it seems like it ought to have been posted in a
text format rather than an image format!

 

[Graham Mayor]

The whole point of PDF is that it is not an editable format. Acrobat can
save a PDF in Word document format, but that does not necessarily mean that
the document will be editable. It rather depends what source material the
PDF was created from. In your case you will need OCR software to make the
conversion.

If you have Acrobat you can save the PDF as TIF and use Microsoft Document
Imaging (supplied with Office but not installed by default) to convert the
image to text. Or use some rather better OCR software (eg Finereader) on the
PDF itself.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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The document is a copy of a law from the county web site. It was a
.pdf converted to .doc. And my Word is a full version, fully paid.

Where did you get that document from? Do you have an expired trial
verion of Word?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"

I can't edit a document in Word 2007. I have saved it in 2007 and
in 2003, but either way, it acts like a "picture", and I can't edit
it. HELP!

 

[Vicki_g]

We have all our codes posted in pdf on line. Sometimes I have to go to the
pdf, go up to Edit, Select All, Copy. Then open up a blank Word document and
paste. There are ususally no paragraph breaks, indents, bullets, etc. But at
least the text is all there and it doesn't have to be totally retyped, just
fancied back up a little.