There is perhaps a way to do this, but it's probably for Linux only. And even
so, if you can do it, it probably won't be quite what you want (that is,
pdf-to-odt format).
It's possible to extract the text from a pdf. The Linux tool is called
pdftotext, and there are probably applications like it for Windoze and the
rotten Apple, but again, they only extract text.
If I were faced with this problem, I would try copying the text from the pdf,
if your pdf reader will allow it. (Again, I am running Linux, so this usually
isn't a problem.) Then I would paste the text into a blank odt document, one
paragraph at a time. Or -- if the document isn't too long -- I would print
out the pdf, or open it in your pdf reader, then type it in by hand.
I know this probably isn't the solution you want, but there really aren't many
other solutions. A pdf document is essentially a photograph of a text
document. The actual text in the document is now only a picture of each page.
Good luck!
Bill
On Friday 15 December 2023 09:33:18 Rory O'Farrell wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Dec 2023 17:07:44 +
>
> "W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof." wrote:
> > I assume that by 'totally distorted' Yvonne meant that the text was
> > present but the formatting was scrambled. If that is the case, I don't
> > think that optical character recognition (OCR) software would do any
> > better, and it might introduce errors in the text itself.
> >
> > I'm not aware of any better solution than using PDF-to-text conversion
> > software, which is what I assume the Best Buy people did. It might be
> > worth looking for such software that does a better job of reproducing the
> > original formatting. In my experience, a fair amount of manual editing is
> > required, depending on how complicated the formatting was.
> >
> > - Robert
>
> Almost every OCR program which produces plain text will require substantial
> reformatting, which the proposed alterations may well require anyway. OCR,
> no matter how accurately carried out, will have a small error rate: in my
> experience 1% to 2%, which will require detailed proofreadng and
> correction.
>
> Some careful searching may reveal PDF to ODT conversion programs that
> preserve formatting, but the need for detailed proofreading and correction
> will still exist. On the occasions I OCR long texts, I always reformat.
>
> Rory
>
> >
> > From: Terence Warby
> > Sent: December 15, 2023 10:38
> > To: users@openoffice.apache.org
> > Subject: Re: PDF to odt problem
> >
> > I think the best thing to do is to run the pdf file through an OCR
> > program. This will recover the text and you can the edit this in
> > OpenOffice writer. Hope this helps.
> > From: AOL Mail
> > Sent: Friday, December 15, 2023 1:14:50 AM
> > To: users@openoffice.apache.org
> > Subject: PDF to odt problem
> >
> > I am trying to change a PDF file to odt. I also take it to Best Buy and
> > when the techs converted it to odt and wanted to open it on Open Office
> > --- it was totally distorted. If I send you a PDF file can you convert
> > it for me to odt, please. It is a book my husband, who is an author,
> > wrote, and it needs some changes. My odt files disappeared, so the only
> > way out is converting a PDF to odt. I will really appreciate it very much
> > Yvonne Barkhuizen
-
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@openoffice.apache.org
