I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Phil
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Phil Addison wrote:
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.


Have a look at
http://www.textfrompdf.com/tfpdownload.htm


--
Grunff

"Phil Addison" wrote in message
...
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Phil
The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/
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You might do better posting to one of the computer groups, such as alt.
computer. I've found them helpful in the past.

Derek.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:02:27 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
Avenue Supplies, http://avenuesupplies.co.uk

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:12:31 +0000, in uk.d-i-y Grunff
wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.


Have a look at
http://www.textfrompdf.com/tfpdownload.htm

That looked promising until I saw this in their FAQ

"PDF documents can be password protected by their authors to prevent
unwanted editing of their content. TEXTfromPDF honors this and therefore
does not provide a way around this protection. You will not be able to
extract these documents without providing the password(s) in the
Password window of TEXTfromPDF. You should contact the author of the
document to obtain their permission and password(s)."

Thanks anyway


Phil
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:13:44 GMT, in uk.d-i-y "DiddyS"
wrote:


"Phil Addison" wrote in message
...
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Phil
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You might do better posting to one of the computer groups, such as alt.
computer. I've found them helpful in the past.

Will try, but I have yet to find a more helpful group than this one ;-)

Phil
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On 8 Jan 2006 18:16:00 GMT, in uk.d-i-y "Bob Eager"
wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:02:27 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

I tried to instal those once before but got hopelessly lost with what
version to use and which bits to install or leave out. Is there an easy
way for XP or W2000?

Phil
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Bob Eager wrote:
On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:02:27 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:


I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.


You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..


I've successfully used this - I think if you install the current
Ghostscript on XP it installs ghostview as well so is easier than it
used to be.

Also allows you to export graphics from any application that prints -
install the printer "MS color publisher" which prints to a postscript file.

--
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To email replace 127.0.0.1 with blueyonder dot co dot uk

If you have lost your password to the PDF files, there are various
programs available for a small charge which claim to be able to unlock
any PDF.

Alternatively, if they are not your pdf's, can you ask the source of
the PDF to provide you with the text?
--
Steve

Phil Addison wrote:
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

When you say the 'copy feature' is disabled, do you mean you can't even
enter the doc, select text and copy it? (that being a route I've used
myself in the past).

David

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:02:27 GMT, Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Phil
The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/
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Try printing to a (non-Adobe) PDF Printer driver - this may get you an unprotected PDF.

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:11:55 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Lobster
wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

When you say the 'copy feature' is disabled, do you mean you can't even
enter the doc, select text and copy it? (that being a route I've used
myself in the past).

Exactly that

Phil
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:18:15 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Mike Harrison
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:02:27 GMT, Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Phil
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Try printing to a (non-Adobe) PDF Printer driver - this may get you an unprotected PDF.

You mean and saving it to another (pdf) file?

Phil
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:03:09 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Chris Hodges
wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:
On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:02:27 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:


I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.


You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..


I've successfully used this - I think if you install the current
Ghostscript on XP it installs ghostview as well so is easier than it
used to be.

Also allows you to export graphics from any application that prints -
install the printer "MS color publisher" which prints to a postscript file.

Thanks - I'll try again. This is the site I am using
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/



Phil
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:02:27 GMT, Phil Addison
wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Can you print to file?

--
I wish the buck stopped here. I could use a few.

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:03:09 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Chris Hodges
wrote:

Also allows you to export graphics from any application that prints -
install the printer "MS color publisher" which prints to a postscript file.

Where do you get the printer driver "MS color publisher" from?

Phil
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:32:26 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Geoffrey
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:02:27 GMT, Phil Addison
wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Can you print to file?

Presumably, if I install the Print to File driver. What then?

Phil
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On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:38:34 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:

On 8 Jan 2006 18:16:00 GMT, in uk.d-i-y "Bob Eager"
wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:02:27 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

I tried to instal those once before but got hopelessly lost with what
version to use and which bits to install or leave out. Is there an easy
way for XP or W2000?

Sorry, can't help - don't use Windows!

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
Avenue Supplies, http://avenuesupplies.co.uk

Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them.

Is it possible you can post links to the files so we can try out ideas
on them before suggesting use X, Y & Z to you?

Phil Addison wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:
Phil Addison wrote:
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

I tried to instal those once before but got hopelessly lost with what
version to use and which bits to install or leave out. Is there an easy
way for XP or W2000?

Try again, its not rocket science.

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 20:30:37 +0000, in uk.d-i-y Chris Bacon
wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:
Phil Addison wrote:
I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

I tried to instal those once before but got hopelessly lost with what
version to use and which bits to install or leave out. Is there an easy
way for XP or W2000?

Try again, its not rocket science.

Yippee success. many thanks all of you for the ideas. The one that
worked for me was GhostScript.

went to http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/, clicked Obtaining AFPL
Ghostscript 8.53

Installed for GhostScript Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP
gs853w32.exe, AFPL Ghostscript 8.53 for Win32.
gsv47w32.exe, GSview 4.7 for Win32

Powered up GhostScript. Got a command prompt - Arggh
Tried GSview

Lovely intuitive (almost) GUI. Loaded my file. Clicked Extract Text and
saved.

Got everything in txt form - wonderful. Of course each table cell is on
a new line.

So where is my VI crib sheet. Will be doing some neat sed-ing for the
next hour or so to regenerate CSV format.

Thanks again guys - who needs alt.computing, pah!

Phil
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 20:16:49 +0000, in uk.d-i-y Andy Burns
wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them.

Is it possible you can post links to the files so we can try out ideas
on them before suggesting use X, Y & Z to you?

Nice idea but no need now. Cheers.

Phil
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Phil Addison wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 20:16:49 +0000, in uk.d-i-y Andy Burns
wrote:


Phil Addison wrote:


I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them.

Is it possible you can post links to the files so we can try out ideas
on them before suggesting use X, Y & Z to you?


Nice idea but no need now. Cheers.

Phil
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It's a bit late in the day a this point in time relatively speaking, but
if you had an old CorelDraw ver. 8, it includes an OCR program in the
suite that will convert any bitmap text image to a text file. So
*anything* on screen can be dumped to a .pcx or .tif and converted to text.

john

d

Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Try to find somebody with a Mac computer. OS X is the current operating
system and has a feature whereby anything that can be displayed on the
screen can be 'Printed to PDF'. That presumably means that the new PDF
file won't be copy protected.

If the files aren't too big, I could try coverting one for you - but I'm
only on a dial-up connection, so contact me first before sending any
large file.

AJH wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:02:27 GMT, Phil Addison
wrote:

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

You can cut some of the noise out by saving the pdr as a tiff image
and then doing OCR direct from this, still needs the proof reading
though.

Some OCR will work directly from a pdf.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

In message , Phil Addison
writes
On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:18:15 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Mike Harrison
wrote:

Try printing to a (non-Adobe) PDF Printer driver - this may get you
an unprotected PDF.

You mean and saving it to another (pdf) file?

Sort of but not quite.

You can programs that enable you to 'print' from a program and produce a
pdf file.

Depending on how they work this may I guess produce a pdf without the
copy protection.

I use Cutepdf for this:

http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

I find it useful for 'saving' copies of webpages, such a receipts etc.
among other things.
--
Chris French

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 22:08:28 GMT, in uk.d-i-y
(Roly) wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

I'm loathe to try printing and ocr as that takes ages to proof read and
correct.

Try to find somebody with a Mac computer. OS X is the current operating
system and has a feature whereby anything that can be displayed on the
screen can be 'Printed to PDF'. That presumably means that the new PDF
file won't be copy protected.

If the files aren't too big, I could try coverting one for you - but I'm
only on a dial-up connection, so contact me first before sending any
large file.

Thanks for all the extra suggestions, but see my message
timed at 20:42 - its all sorted now. :-)

For the screen copy ideas - sorry but there are 13 large pages.

Phil
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Phil Addison wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 20:30:37 +0000, in uk.d-i-y Chris Bacon
wrote:


Phil Addison wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

I tried to instal those once before but got hopelessly lost with what
version to use and which bits to install or leave out. Is there an easy
way for XP or W2000?

Try again, its not rocket science.


Yippee success. many thanks all of you for the ideas. The one that
worked for me was GhostScript.

went to http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/, clicked Obtaining AFPL
Ghostscript 8.53

Installed for GhostScript Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP
gs853w32.exe, AFPL Ghostscript 8.53 for Win32.
gsv47w32.exe, GSview 4.7 for Win32

Powered up GhostScript. Got a command prompt - Arggh
Tried GSview

Lovely intuitive (almost) GUI. Loaded my file. Clicked Extract Text and
saved.

Got everything in txt form - wonderful. Of course each table cell is on
a new line.

So where is my VI crib sheet. Will be doing some neat sed-ing for the
next hour or so to regenerate CSV format.

You may get somewhere with outputting as .pdf again (file | export as
PDF - or something like that)

Chris

--
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Phil Addison wrote:

Where do you get the printer driver "MS color publisher" from?


It's built in to XP. My work install had it available under add
printers without needing the XP CD. I think it's under Generic, but I'm
not sure and I'm on Linux here.

Chris

--
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Huge wrote:

A Google for "pdf2txt" or "pdf2text" would be informative. There are a
number of programs about that do exactly what you want.


The first few hits (when I tried it) respect the security options though.

Chris

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On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 17:59:20 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Chris Hodges
wrote:

Huge wrote:

A Google for "pdf2txt" or "pdf2text" would be informative. There are a
number of programs about that do exactly what you want.


The first few hits (when I tried it) respect the security options though.

Thanks for your efforts Chris, but I did post last night that it was all
sorted via ghostscript.

Phil

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:38:34 GMT, Phil Addison
wrote:

On 8 Jan 2006 18:16:00 GMT, in uk.d-i-y "Bob Eager"
wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:02:27 UTC, Phil Addison
wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them. Does anyone
know of software that can extract the data? Preferably shareware or
freeware of course.

You could try Ghostview (GSView) and GhostScript...Google for more..

I tried to instal those once before but got hopelessly lost with what
version to use and which bits to install or leave out. Is there an easy
way for XP or W2000?

The only program to unlock a PDF is made by Elcomsoft but is
expensive.

Chris Hodges wrote:
Huge wrote:

A Google for "pdf2txt" or "pdf2text" would be informative. There are a
number of programs about that do exactly what you want.


The first few hits (when I tried it) respect the security options though.
The patch to xpdf/pdf2txt took me 2 min to write - having never seen the
source before.

I find though that I haven't saved it.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Owain wrote:

Phil Addison wrote:
Can you print to file?
Presumably, if I install the Print to File driver. What then?

If the copy-protection allows printing, set up a generic text printer
driver and specify printer location as "file". You will then get a
plain-text file of the text.

That's what I thought - and was going to post to this effect last night. But
I did an experiment first, and the file contained gobbledegook!
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them.

Use Foxit Reader to open them. You can use it to copy text and paste to
a word processor.

However the protected files are there like that for a reason. They are
copyrighted, probably.

Ian Stirling wrote:
Chris Hodges wrote:

Huge wrote:

A Google for "pdf2txt" or "pdf2text" would be informative. There are a
number of programs about that do exactly what you want.


The first few hits (when I tried it) respect the security options though.

The patch to xpdf/pdf2txt took me 2 min to write - having never seen the
source before.

Thus neatly making the topic relevant to uk.d-i-y -- well done:-)
(though posting as was possibly less clever)

Douglas de Lacey

Douglas de Lacey wrote:
Ian Stirling wrote:
Chris Hodges wrote:

Huge wrote:

A Google for "pdf2txt" or "pdf2text" would be informative. There are a
number of programs about that do exactly what you want.


The first few hits (when I tried it) respect the security options though.

The patch to xpdf/pdf2txt took me 2 min to write - having never seen the
source before.

Thus neatly making the topic relevant to uk.d-i-y -- well done:-)
(though posting as was possibly less clever)

Historical - userID was chosen when I was still using windows (3.11)

Phil Addison wrote:
The first few hits (when I tried it) respect the security options though.


Thanks for your efforts Chris, but I did post last night that it was all
sorted via ghostscript.

Glad to hear it. This seems to have turned into one of those "useful
threads" so I thought I'd point out thatthe rpevious suggestion might
not work. When I tried was about a year ago with the same issue except I
wanted to machine translate text.

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On 9 Jan 2006 16:34:09 -0800, in uk.d-i-y "Weatherlawyer"
wrote:


Phil Addison wrote:

I have some pdf files that I want to pull into excel but they have the
copy feature disabled so all I can do is save or print them.

Use Foxit Reader to open them. You can use it to copy text and paste to
a word processor.

However the protected files are there like that for a reason. They are
copyrighted, probably.

Don't think so - printing is allowed, so that doesn't prevent
photocopying. I did not want to copy them, just look at the data in
different way, ie via sorts and filters in excel to easier pick out the
trends I am looking for. Could do exactly the same with paper and
pencil, but its somewhat easier in a spreadsheet.

Phil