MEPIS Community Forum

from time, to time, there have been questions posited about the best methods to batch convert documents.

happened across a solution, called pandoc. haven't tried it, yet, but it looks promising.

http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/

Certainly looks interesting...thanks.

Interesting but i don't see any thing about PDF files in the mix. I could use a simple PDF to text converter. If you know of anything that doesn't require a degree to use, would be happy to try it. Played with poppler i think its called but it complained about the files being linear or something similar. Not up on things like that but would like to break out a paragraph now and then instead of putzing for ever.

I have used this site for file conversion, especially when MS changed there formats.

http://www.zamzar.com/

Wouldn't highlighting the text and Copy/Paste into an empty KWrite document do for a paragraph or two?

it does PDF, but you need to have latex installed, too.

this tool isn't for a few docs, rather batch conversions of many docs.

You would think so but haven't managed to find the key to doing so. All i get is a hand sliding up & down the page, can't figure how to highlight the text & no right click options...?? Something unusual about these PDF files i guess. Document handling not my long suit, wrench in hand & im at home.

Might be a function of the PDF reader. I remember using Word for the first time and losing it when I couldn't use the _ to underline a few words. Computer nerds are just arcane.

There are 2 sorts of pdf files - those created using font details, and those created from an image. You can extract text from the former, but not the latter. Image pdfs tend to be much larger than font-based pdfs. It's also possible to create a hybrid pdf, where some elements are font-based and others are images. This is an example:

Open it in Okular, click the last icon on the toolbar (a sort of box with a pencil across it) which is the selection tool. You will find that you can extract text from the bold black areas (which are text-based and specific to the event) but can only extract an image from the other text areas (these are created as an image template).

Other pdf readers work similarly. If the text looks a bit fuzzy, you can be fairly certain it's an image-based pdf.

Phil

Well i found the key right under my nose as usual. In ocular in tools , selection tool lets you draw a box round the item then right mouse context menu works to copy to clipboard etc. Couldn't see the forest for tha trees. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks at times.

Thanks for input guys, made the wheels go round finally.