I am using foxit PDF reader to view my text book. I would like to copy the text from the pdf file into a word document but it won't let me. I can select the text fine but the option to copy text is.
Active8 months ago
I have some PDFs and I am trying to cut and paste text they contain from Acrobat Reader into an HTML form. It seems that some of these files use (I suspect) unicode for text encoding, so when I try to paste into the HTML form (on firefox) I get the little boxes with hex chars in them rather than readable text. The problem is not that the PDF has not been OCRed -- when I try to do that in Acrobat Pro it says it can't because the file already contains renderable text. Is there any way to deal with this? For example could I add some sort of javascript to the form that would do conversion?
SteveSteve44233 gold badges88 silver badges1717 bronze badges
7 Answers
Are you able to paste text copied from the file into other programs like Notepad or Word or any other?
Some PDF files are produced without special information that is crucial for successful extraction of text from them. Even by the Adobe tools. Basically, such files do not contain glyph-to-character mapping information.
Such files will be displayed and printed just fine, but text from them can't be properly copied / extracted.
For example, Distiller produces such files when 'Smallest File Size' preset is used.
BobrovskyBobrovsky9,0271919 gold badges6363 silver badges113113 bronze badges
I have the same problem.. Indeed it is explained here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/915012
My solution was to convert the pdf to Word using the Exporting Tool of Acrobat and then extract the information I need from it.
It's frustrating but that work.
Another solution that I find is to convert the pdf in images (jpeg, png, etc) and then run an OCR process.
Piotr002Piotr002
It is quite possible that the text contains characters that get copied correctly but your browser is unable to display them, due to lack of suitable font. A PDF document may contain embedded fonts, so Adobe Reader displays the characters OK, but a browser lacks access to those fonts.
You can check whether this is the reason by trying to copy and paste the characters here (it might be useful info about the problem anyway). You could also download and install the Code200x fonts, which contain pretty much any character you can normally expect to encounter. (It is not guaranteed, but probable, that Firefox will be able to use those fonts automatically when needed.)
Jukka K. KorpelaJukka K. Korpela160k2727 gold badges208208 silver badges311311 bronze badges
- Select the text in Acrobat.
- Right-click and select 'Copy with formatting' from the context menu.
- Wait for the progress bar to process the text.
- Paste in the Word document.
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DavidDavid
We had similar problem trying to copy/paste cyrillics from a PDF file into Excel.
The easiest solution we found was to open the .pdf with a browser (Chrome, Mozilla or Opera) and copy/paste the text in Word, Excel.
It didn't work with IE, as expected.
MKamenovaMKamenova
I had the same problem but I solved it by opening the PDF file with the web-browser (chrome in my case).Copy-and-pasting non-ASCII encoding works fine in chrome.
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user5762406user5762406
You can export from acrobat as jpeg, then open the jpeg in acrobat (not reader) then run the OCR tool. From there you should be able to copy/paste.
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Kermit RussellKermit Russell
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged pdfunicodeacrobat or ask your own question.
Word 2013 offers a new feature, called PDF Reflow, that allows you to import PDF files into Word and edit the text as a Word document. You can then resave or export the text as a PDF file.
NOTE: The PDF Reflow feature in Word 2013 works best with documents that are mostly text. If there are graphics in the PDF file, Word seems to have issues with them, and you may lose your images. It may also take Word a few minutes to open a PDF file in edit mode, depending on how big the file is.
To open a PDF file in Word 2013, click the FILE tab.
Click the Open option on the left and then click Computer if your PDF file is on your local hard drive. You can also open files from SkyDrive or another location using Add a Place.
If opening a PDF file on your local hard drive, click one of the Recent Folders on the right or click the Browse button to find your file.
Navigate to the location of your PDF file, select it, and click Open.
The following dialog box displays, warning you about the time it may take to convert your document. It also warns you that your document may not look like the original if there are a lot of graphics.
NOTE: You can skip this dialog next time by selecting the Don’t show this message again check box.
The PDF file opens in Word, and you can edit it, adding, deleting, changing, and moving text.
To convert the document back to a PDF file you can either save it as a PDF file or export it. We will show you how to save it as a PDF file. If you would rather export the file as a PDF file, use the Export option on the FILE tab and and select the PDF/XPS format.
To save the file as a PDF file, click the FILE tab and click the Save As option on the left.
Copy Text From Pdf To Word Keep Formatting
Select the location where you want to save the PDF file. You can save it to your SkyDrive account, your local hard drive using the Computer option, or a different location using Add a Place. We chose to save it to our local hard drive, so we selected Computer and then clicked Browse.
NOTE: To skip this screen and go directly to the Save As dialog box, see our article about bypassing the Backstage screen when saving new documents in Word 2013.
On the Save As dialog box, navigate to the desired location to save your PDF file and enter a name for the file in the File name edit box. Select PDF (*.pdf) from the Save as type drop-down list. The Options button displays providing you the opportunity to specify settings for your PDF file.
NOTE: We recommend saving your revised PDF file under a new name, leaving the original PDF file unchanged.
Change the desired settings for your PDF file on the Options dialog box and click OK.
You are returned to the Save As dialog box, where you can click Save to save your revised PDF file.
The new PDF file automatically opens in the default PDF reader.
To close your original PDF file, click the FILE tab in Word and click the Close option on the left.
You will be asked if you want to save changes to the original PDF file. Since we saved the revised PDF file with a new name, we don’t want to save changes to the original PDF file. Click Don’t Save to keep your original PDF file intact.
For the example in this article, we created a PDF file using random text generated using the free tool discussed in this article.
READ NEXTCopy Text From Pdf Free
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