Hi Brian,
I think your link got broken in OE. I copied and pasted link to IE but
unsure where to play MP3 file. But that is unimportant because I listened
to it from your later link. I did have a copy of PDF conversion info in my
save email folder which is pasted below. It just adds another link for
conversion from PDF.
Ann
How To Convert PDF Files To Word Files For Free
Your best free option is to use an online conversion service. With these
services, you upload your PDF file, then download the converted file,or use
a personally owned program for converting.
I tried a number of these services, including one offered by Adobe, but in
the end I could only recommend two. Each, however, was excellent.
My first choice is ZamZar
http://www.zamzar.com/
This is an excellent general file conversion site, and PDF to DOC is one of
the many conversion options available.
Usage couldn't be simpler: just surf to the site, select your conversion
output type, point to the file you want uploaded for conversion and type in
your email address.
Some time later you will get an email with a download link for the converted
file.
For my 107KB test PDF file, the download email link came back to me within
one minute, which was pretty impressive, though I have heard that sometimes
you may have to wait for quite a while.
My test file is in multi-column format with breakout boxes in various font
styles and has embedded images. Converting this is quite a challenge.
ZamZar did well, though. The two column layout was preserved, the images
were reproduced in their correct locations and the varying fonts rendered
well, given that Word had no exact matching fonts. Importantly, all the text
could be edited from within Word On the downside the image quality was
reduced and the article's large opening drop capital was displaced. Not bad
though.
My second recommendation, KoolWire
http://www.koolwire.com/Messenger01.aspx
works very similar to ZamZar. There are, however, some differences:
First, the converted KoolWire file comes back as RTF, not DOC format. That's
not a problem though, as Word can easily read RTF files. Second, the
KoolWire site suggests that if the file being converted is less than 10MB,
then you should email the file rather than directly upload it. This is
rather less convenient, so I told a white lie and selected the "more than
10MB" option, in which case I was able to directly upload the file just like
with ZamZar.
There was another minor annoyance. The KoolWire site is in Italian and,
although an English option is offered, it is less than complete. Still, it's
not hard to work out what you have to do.
Conversion quality was good, but on my sample file the converted RTF file
was not quite as good as ZamZar. Two of the document's pages mysteriously
ended up as tables, and the image quality was poorer. On the other hand,
KoolWire got the big drop capital correct, though at the expense of messing
the left justification of the paragraph that contained it. At 869KB, the
converted file was similar in size to the 829KB ZamZar file.
Overall, both these free conversion services are good though not perfect.
Which one gives the best conversion will probably depend on the document
being converted, so why not try both?
Regarding using a personally owned rogram for conversion, Kurzweil from
Kurzweil Educatioal Systems converts a pdf file upon opening it.
Unfortunately this program is what's know as assistive software that
includes speech with scanning, word processing and more. The program costs
around $1,000.
A more reasonable program is PDF Magic from Premier Technology. It cost $39.
When getting a pdf file, open it with PDF Magic and it will be converted to
text or rtf.
This program also has synthetic speech for use by visually impaired
individuals.
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18:56:00
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Lee" <brianl...@charter.net>
To: <jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 11:47 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] converting pdf files to audio?
Hi Ann,
I don't think my link to the file on my SkyDrive page worked in my last
message. Here it is again:
<http://cid-df4620463321b782.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Bluetooth%2
0Wireless%20Technology%20Basics%20for%20HP%20DV6.mp3?authkey=AytbBqUdato%24>
View File
Hopefully, this time it will be a link. The content of my last message is
shown below.
Take care.
Brian Lee
brianl...@charter.net
Hello Ann,
I haven't used Open Book for some time but if I remember right the option
to
save a file as an audio file was in the file menu. Another idea to
consider
might be using www.zamzar.com. They will convert PDF to MP3 and the audio
is quite good. I sent them a file recently and had it returned in just a
couple minutes. I have put a link below to the file on my SkyDrive page
so
you can listen to the audio. The file I submitted was a PDF file on
bluetooth technology and the resulting MP3 was a lot better than I thought
it would be. If you follow the llink below you will be taken to the page
for downloading the file. Use insert with f7 and pick the download link
on
the web page. You can choose to save it if you want to or just open it to
hear it. If you use ZamZar then all you need to do is browse to the file
on
your drive and upload it, put in your Email address where they can send a
link to the file, choose MP3 from the combo box and submit the file. When
you follow the link they send you there will be an alternative to download
the file, which you can do to get the MP3 file on your computer. Here is
the link to the audio file on my SkyDrive page that I had them convert if
you want to hear some of it to check out the quality:
<http://cid-df4620463321b782.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Bluetooth%2
0Wireless%20Technology%20Basics%20for%20HP%20DV6.mp3?authkey=AytbBqUdato%24>
View File
Take care.
Brian Lee
brianl...@charter.net
-----Original Message-----
From: jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com
[mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of Ann M. Medlar
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 6:37 PM
To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] converting pdf files to audio?
Honestly unsure how to do this in OB. Do you remember where that would be
located? I just tried to save as and I did not see MP3 or wav as choices.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Appleby" <timappl...@shaw.ca>
To: <jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] converting pdf files to audio?
Actually, Openbook does record Elequence onto MP3 formatted files, if you
set it to record the text into either WAV or MP3, its your choice.
I hope this helps, I had the program as a demo, that's how I know.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ann M. Medlar" <amedl...@gmail.com>
To: <jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 5:35 PM
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] converting pdf files to audio?
There may be some software out there but one off the cuff way to do this
and I don't know if it would work but...
Open .pdf file using scanning software.
I think scanning software like Openbook reads PDF files better.
File is read using synthesized voice, eloquence, sappy...
You can then record the synthesized reading using a digital recorder.
You now have a audio file on your recorder that you can copy to your PC.
I know that you can go from speech to text using Dragon or similar
software but don't know if there are other ways.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David. chatten-smith" <davechsm...@hotmail.com>
To: "jaws users group" <jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 4:56 PM
Subject: [JAWS-Users] converting pdf files to audio?
Hi, a long shot i know but is there any software out there that will
allow me to convert pdf files to a audio file?
i am using jaws 10, with win xp.
many thanks
david
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