This page is for exploring how to speed this process of porting PDF documents. The main help page (which needs updating) is at: Help:Porting content from PDF format.
Possible methods
- Acrobat Reader has an "export as text" function, but only plain text.
- In the non-free Adobe Acrobat there is an option to save to Word format[1] - but apparently not in the free Adobe Reader. (If you have access to the larger non-free program Adobe Acrobat - v 5.0 or higher should work[2] - please try this and let us know here if it works. Your workplace, university or school may be able to give you access to it. In the free program, (in Linux and Windows version) it seems to only offer plain text.
- Use wikEd - this doesn't work yet, as the formatting is not saved when pasting into the edit box. Are there PDF readers or editors (or any other program which can open these files) which allow the formatting to be copied and pasted?
- User talk:LeissKG - discussion on alternative techniques and issues in porting PDFs - OCR, text export.
Other commercial programs
Question: are there free trial versions that do what we need? Help by trying them out. (These programs are not guaranteed - do some Googling to make sure they're safe, and/or make sure you've got good anti-spyware and anti-virus.)
These are not ideal, as 1. we can't invite everybody to help out without paying lots of money or stretching/breaking the licensing agreements, 2. they usually take an extra step, via Word, and 3. They're only for Windows.
But for reference (in case of desperation):
- http://www.adorepdf.com/ - $20
- http://www.pdfgrabber.com/ - EUR 32,77, + trial version.
- http://www.quickpdftoword.com/ $30, + free trial
- http://www.topshareware.com/PDF-Export-Kit-download-40390.htm - $49, + free trial version
- http://www.convert-in.com/pdfekit.htm $29 just for PDF-to-HTML. Demo available (functional?)
Images
- Are images saved automatically during file export? It appears so for exporting to HTML/XML, at least. Do any of the formats include tags to indicate image location?
- Export PDFs as (formated) text - help.adobe.com. Note: "Images in the PDF are saved by default in JPEG format." Is their location saved? Is there a way of smoothing the process of putting the image in right place in the wiki page?