Hi Dale,
Thank you very much for this excellent explanation of the PDF file. I
now
understand why that these PDF files we get from our CPA look like text
to
my
wife but Adobe says "Alert, Empty Document". This is definitely a
keeper.
Thanks again, take care.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dale Leavens" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Opening a PDF file
Actually it stands for portable document format (PDF) Originally it
started
as a method of creating one standard which various printers could render
at
a time when the output from a word processor to a printer depended on
the
printers and the codes one could send to the printer. As many printers
had
unique codes the appearance of a printed document might vary a lot from
one
printer to another. If the document was converted to the .PDF format it
could be rendered in a common way regardless of the word processor which
created it. Of course it has all evolved a long way from that since.
Those documents which appear to be blank to our screen reading
technology
but which are text on the screen to sighted people are like that because
they are pictures of text. To understand that you need to understand
that
text created and rendered in say Microsoft Word or HTML (Hypertext
mark-up
language) is actually a series of numbers which the programmes interpret
as
letters. Jaws can intercept those numbers and render them as letters.
Text
though which is a picture is simply a series of dots or lack of dots on
the
screen which Jaws cannot differentiate from the dots which might make up
an
image of your pet cat.
An OCR (Optical Character Recognition ) programme can assess those dots
and
try to recognize patterns as letters and if it can do this create a
rendering of text. This works the same way as when you place a paper
with
text on a scanner, scan it in where it too is rendered as an image for
the
OCR software to process.
One reason why people like those formats is that it is very difficult to
edit or otherwise change the content of the document. Another reason is
that
what ever word processor one has, downloading the .PDF reader which is
free
will render the document readable to the sighted anyway.
Hope this helps understand those apparently blank .PDF files.
Dale Leavens.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenbu" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Opening a PDF file
OK, a portable file formqat, it sounds like you can format a file, then
why would you do that? Ken B
----- Original Message -----
From: "Simon" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 7:40 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Opening a PDF file
its short for portable file format.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenbu" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Opening a PDF file
EXcuse my ignorance; What is a pdf file? Is that much like say, a
mthl
or
something like that? Ken B
----- Original Message -----
From: "Flor Lynch" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Opening a PDF file
Before investing in OCR programs for this rather simple image
conversion
job, try out the free program pdf2txt, downloadable from
http://EmpowermentZone.com/p2tsetup.exe
PDF2TXT
which is now at version 3.3 and was (and is being) developed by
Jamal
Mazrui. i wrote on this to the list a few weeks ago, so I'm sure
it's
already mentioned in the archive.
Flor.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike & Barbara" <[email protected]>
To: "jaws-users-list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 8:07 PM
Subject: [JAWS-Users] Opening a PDF file
Hi all,
We received an attachment in the form of a PDF file from our CPA.
There
are
no graphics. It is just a straight letter but, when I try to
convert
it
with Adobe it says, "Alert, Empty document". Is there something
that
I
can
do so Jaws will read this letter? I also tried to copy it but, when
I
try
to select all I get this message, "This is a secure document.
Selection
is
not allowed." I had my better half look at the attachment and that
is
how I
know that the letter contains only text. I am running XP/SP3 Home,
Office
Home 2002, Adobe 9.1, & Jaws 10 latest. All help will be greatly
appreciated. Thanks much, take care.
Mike
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06:28:00
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