Printing a .pdf to a .txt file from Adobe Acrobat

I have a whole set of .pdf files (excuse the redundancy; I know that the 'f'
stands for file) that I want to convert to .txt files. Saving them as .txt
files hasn't done what I wanted; this is columnar data, and it will put one
or more elements from, say, the second row into the first, but in no
consistent pattern. Printing each of them to a .txt file may well work, but
I don't know in detail how to do this. I know that there's a "print to file"
option on the print menu, but I don't know how to specify a .txt file.

I think that the method may be to establish a dummy printer that is a .txt
file, but I don't know how to do that, either.

The more specific the answer, the better. I'm quite knowledgeable about
some things on PCs, but this isn't one of them.

Jim Skrydlak wrote:
I have a whole set of .pdf files (excuse the redundancy; I know that the 'f'
stands for file) that I want to convert to .txt files. Saving them as .txt
files hasn't done what I wanted; this is columnar data, and it will put one
or more elements from, say, the second row into the first, but in no
consistent pattern. Printing each of them to a .txt file may well work, but
I don't know in detail how to do this. I know that there's a "print to file"
option on the print menu, but I don't know how to specify a .txt file.

I think that the method may be to establish a dummy printer that is a .txt
file, but I don't know how to do that, either.

The more specific the answer, the better. I'm quite knowledgeable about
some things on PCs, but this isn't one of them.

Click "Start" button on task bar

Move mouse pointer to "control Panel" in second column of menu.

When list of "Control Panel" applets displays move pointer to "Printers
and Faxes"

Click "Add Printer" to start the "Add Printer" wizard.

In the wizard select "local printer..." with "Automatically detect..."
unchecked.

Select"Use the following port:" and : "File
(print to file)" in the port drop down.

In the "Manufacturer" drop down select "Generic".

In the "Printers" drop down select "Generic / Text only"


Select your new "Printer" when you want to generate text from your
application.

You may need to overtype the file extension when you "Print" to the file.

Note that the choices made by whoever generated the PDF file might
prevent the Generic text to file "Printer" from generating text in the
format you want or even generating text output at all. ONE of the
selling points for the better PDF creation applications is the OPTION
for document creators to restrict the ability to generate modified forms
of the document's content. Some document creators might allow you to
copy the document's text to the Windows clipboard and paste the text
from the clipboard to an word processing application like OpenOffice
Write or Microsoft Word.

I've been able to install the generic text printer by following your
instructions.

Thank you!

Jim

"RobertVA" wrote:

Jim Skrydlak wrote:
I have a whole set of .pdf files (excuse the redundancy; I know that the 'f'
stands for file) that I want to convert to .txt files. Saving them as .txt
files hasn't done what I wanted; this is columnar data, and it will put one
or more elements from, say, the second row into the first, but in no
consistent pattern. Printing each of them to a .txt file may well work, but
I don't know in detail how to do this. I know that there's a "print to file"
option on the print menu, but I don't know how to specify a .txt file.

I think that the method may be to establish a dummy printer that is a .txt
file, but I don't know how to do that, either.

The more specific the answer, the better. I'm quite knowledgeable about
some things on PCs, but this isn't one of them.

Click "Start" button on task bar

Move mouse pointer to "control Panel" in second column of menu.

When list of "Control Panel" applets displays move pointer to "Printers
and Faxes"

Click "Add Printer" to start the "Add Printer" wizard.

In the wizard select "local printer..." with "Automatically detect..."
unchecked.

Select"Use the following port:" and : "File
(print to file)" in the port drop down.

In the "Manufacturer" drop down select "Generic".

In the "Printers" drop down select "Generic / Text only"


Select your new "Printer" when you want to generate text from your
application.

You may need to overtype the file extension when you "Print" to the file.

Note that the choices made by whoever generated the PDF file might
prevent the Generic text to file "Printer" from generating text in the
format you want or even generating text output at all. ONE of the
selling points for the better PDF creation applications is the OPTION
for document creators to restrict the ability to generate modified forms
of the document's content. Some document creators might allow you to
copy the document's text to the Windows clipboard and paste the text
from the clipboard to an word processing application like OpenOffice
Write or Microsoft Word.

I'am wondering, if this would work, since adobe renders most text from
the pdf to graphics, even if the font is embedded as truetype.
If you have problems try Xpdf, which contains a tool named pdftotext,
that can be used in batch calls too (for your whole set of pdfs).
It is free.

http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

Dieter

On 25 Sep., 21:30, Jim Skrydlak
wrote:
I've been able to install thegenerictextprinter by following your
instructions.

Thank you!

Jim

"RobertVA" wrote:
Jim Skrydlak wrote:
I have a whole set of .pdffiles (excuse the redundancy; I know that the 'f'
stands for file) that I want to convert to .txt files. Saving them as .txt
files hasn't done what I wanted; this is columnar data, and it will put one
or more elements from, say, the second row into the first, but in no
consistent pattern. Printing each of them to a .txt file may well work, but
I don't know in detail how to do this. I know that there's a "print to file"
option on the print menu, but I don't know how to specify a .txt file.

I think that the method may be to establish a dummy printer that is a .txt
file, but I don't know how to do that, either.

The more specific the answer, the better. I'm quite knowledgeable about
some things on PCs, but this isn't one of them.

Click "Start" button on task bar

Move mouse pointer to "control Panel" in second column of menu.

When list of "Control Panel" applets displays move pointer to "Printers
and Faxes"

Click "Add Printer" to start the "Add Printer" wizard.

In the wizard select "local printer..." with "Automatically detect..."
unchecked.

Select"Use the following port:" and : "File
(print to file)" in the port drop down.

In the "Manufacturer" drop down select "Generic".

In the "Printers" drop down select "Generic/Textonly"

Select your new "Printer" when you want to generatetextfrom your
application.

You may need to overtype the file extension when you "Print" to the file.

Note that the choices made by whoever generated thePDFfile might
prevent theGenerictextto file "Printer" from generatingtextin the
format you want or even generatingtextoutput at all. ONE of the
selling points for the betterPDFcreation applications is the OPTION
for document creators to restrict the ability to generate modified forms
of the document's content. Some document creators might allow you to
copy the document'stextto the Windows clipboard and paste thetext
from the clipboard to an word processing application like OpenOffice
Write or Microsoft Word.

RobertVA's instructions worked perfectly to establish the dummy printer, and
I'm quite grateful for that. The .txt files, however, didn't turn out the
way that I wanted (which doesn't make me any less grateful for RobertVA's
help), so I'm going to try what you've just suggested.

Thank you very much for the help. The fact that there are batch calls is
extraordinarily helpful, since I'm dealing with approximately 150 .pdfs.

Jim

"Dieter" wrote:

I'am wondering, if this would work, since adobe renders most text from
the pdf to graphics, even if the font is embedded as truetype.
If you have problems try Xpdf, which contains a tool named pdftotext,
that can be used in batch calls too (for your whole set of pdfs).
It is free.

http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

Dieter

On 25 Sep., 21:30, Jim Skrydlak
wrote:
I've been able to install thegenerictextprinter by following your
instructions.

Thank you!

Jim

"RobertVA" wrote:
Jim Skrydlak wrote:
I have a whole set of .pdffiles (excuse the redundancy; I know that the 'f'
stands for file) that I want to convert to .txt files. Saving them as .txt
files hasn't done what I wanted; this is columnar data, and it will put one
or more elements from, say, the second row into the first, but in no
consistent pattern. Printing each of them to a .txt file may well work, but
I don't know in detail how to do this. I know that there's a "print to file"
option on the print menu, but I don't know how to specify a .txt file.

I think that the method may be to establish a dummy printer that is a .txt
file, but I don't know how to do that, either.

The more specific the answer, the better. I'm quite knowledgeable about
some things on PCs, but this isn't one of them.

Click "Start" button on task bar

Move mouse pointer to "control Panel" in second column of menu.

When list of "Control Panel" applets displays move pointer to "Printers
and Faxes"

Click "Add Printer" to start the "Add Printer" wizard.

In the wizard select "local printer..." with "Automatically detect..."
unchecked.

Select"Use the following port:" and : "File
(print to file)" in the port drop down.

In the "Manufacturer" drop down select "Generic".

In the "Printers" drop down select "Generic/Textonly"

Select your new "Printer" when you want to generatetextfrom your
application.

You may need to overtype the file extension when you "Print" to the file.

Note that the choices made by whoever generated thePDFfile might
prevent theGenerictextto file "Printer" from generatingtextin the
format you want or even generatingtextoutput at all. ONE of the
selling points for the betterPDFcreation applications is the OPTION
for document creators to restrict the ability to generate modified forms
of the document's content. Some document creators might allow you to
copy the document'stextto the Windows clipboard and paste thetext
from the clipboard to an word processing application like OpenOffice
Write or Microsoft Word.

Jim Skrydlak wrote:
RobertVA's instructions worked perfectly to establish the dummy printer, and
I'm quite grateful for that. The .txt files, however, didn't turn out the
way that I wanted (which doesn't make me any less grateful for RobertVA's
help), so I'm going to try what you've just suggested.

Thank you very much for the help. The fact that there are batch calls is
extraordinarily helpful, since I'm dealing with approximately 150 .pdfs.

Jim


Tables don't always translate well into plain text files because many
applications use techniques like tabs, container/cell sizes, or absolute
cursor positioning. A plain text file doesn't have provisions for such
formating, so entries after the first column are often shifted to the
left. In plain text files you can only generate columns by padding out
the entries with spaces. A truly plain text file has no provisions for
designating where tab stops should be.