Kay Lan wrote: In this particular case I found it much easier to open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat and doing a “Save as — Text (Accessible)”
Jim > > On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 9:36 AM, Roger Eller > <roger.e.el...@sealedair.com <mailto:roger.e.el...@sealedair.com>> wrote: >> Since this seems to be Mac only, why not "do as Applescript" the select >> all, and Copy? >> > Because Preview isn't properly scriptable and you can't "Select All" > or "Copy". As Richard said, the answer is with Automator. > > If you open Automator, select a new 'application', then in the left > hand column you'll see "PDF's", as an option. If you click on that and > browse down the middle column you'll see 'Extract PDF Text', and if > you click on that, in it's description you'll see that it can extract > Plain or Rich text. > > So how can we get this to work with LC? > > 1) In Automator, drag the 'Extract PDF Text' action into the right > hand workspace window. > a) Choose the output type - most likely Plain Text > b) Select a folder to save to - for convenience we'll use "Desktop" > c) For the Output File Name you probably want to use a Custom Name - > pdf2text or whatever. You do not need to specify the suffix. > d) tick the Replace Existing files box. > > 2) Back in the left hand column where you clicked on the PDFs icon, > now click on the 'Files & Folders' icon (looks like the Finder icon). >> From the middle column drag 'Ask for Finder Items' into the right hand > column, place it above 'Extract PDF Text'. > a) Set the 'Start at: to a logical location, like Downloads, if that > is where your PDFs are likely to be located. > b) Type: should be left at files and do NOT tick the Allow Multiple > Selection box as these instruction are for a single file only. > > > 3) From the middle column drag 'Open Finder Items' and place it > 'between' the last two actions - so the order will be Ask for Finder > Items, Open Finder Items, Extract PDF Text. > a) Set Open with: to Preview. > > 4) Optionally, if you don't always have Preview open and you don't > want to be left with the PDF file open, in the left hand column click > Utility, and from the middle column drag 'Quit Application' to the end > of your workflow. > a) set it to "Preview.app" > > You can now test this by clicking the Run button in the top right > corner. What should happen is you should get a standard Open File > dialog box to point to a file, you then select a file and shortly > thereafter the Automator log window at the bottom should have all > green ticks. > > You should then be able to navigate to the Desktop folder and the file > 'pdf2text.txt' should be there. > > So to complete the LC integration process. Save your Automator > workflow, and call it something like pdf2text. For this example we'll > also save it to Desktop. > > Then in you LC script: > > on mouseUp > set the defaultFolder to specialFolderPath("desktop") > launch pdf2text.app > --if file is large, consider a wait 1 or more here. > put textDecode(URL > "file:/Users/yourname/Desktop/pdf2text.txt","utf8") into tNotPDF > --do what you have to after this > > --your Automator app will auto Quit once it's done it's thing so > there is no need to balance the 'launch' command with a 'kill' command > end mouseUp > > It should be noted that Automators Extract PDF Text typically does a > better job of text extraction than manually Select All + Copy + Paste. > > Unfortunately I consider both these options about 30% or less accurate > than using my old PPC G5 running Leopard and Devon Technologies old > PDF2RTFService. I had not previously offered a solution to the OP > because, get a PPC Mac, install Leopard and PDF2TEXTService is only > really an option if you are handling many large, complex formatted > pdfs day in, day out, as I am. Jim's problem sounds like a one off. > > > e-livec...@lists.runrev.com <mailto:use-livecode@lists.runrev.com> > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > > ------------------------------ > > End of use-livecode Digest, Vol 154, Issue 21 > ********************************************* _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode