Can crystal Read a .pdf file?

[dgillz]

Does this exist? I want to be able to read a .pdf file from Crystal Reports. If anyone has any experience with this please let me know.
Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[chrisjev]

Hi there,

It is not possible to report from a PDF, no. The only thing that could come close would be to insert the PDF as n OLE Object on the report.

Other options that may be possible, is to provide a translation of the PDF to another format that Crystal can support.

Perhaps if the technology exists you may be able to locate an ODBC or OLEDB Driver for PDF, and in that case then you could, but I am not aware of such a driver at this time.

Chris Evans a.c.e.

 

[chelseatech]

A PDF is essentially a processed postscript file. SO it doesn't obey any of the rules for relational DB's.

What are you trying to get out of the PDF? The PDF has been generated from some other document. Can you get the data from that?
Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

http://www.chelseatech.co.nz/pubs.htm

 

[dgillz]

Bruce,

I have downloaded for free a list of companies in PDF format that are on the Gulf Coast, which is my target market. I want to use this info to set up a faxblast letting them know my services are available.

If this were a .txt file, I could read it with crystal, search for the string "Fax:" and then take the next 14 characters after that to get the fax number. I would then export that list to excel, where I can import it to WinFax and I have a fax listing.

I want to be able to do the same sort of thing to the .pdf document that I have described above for the .txt file.

My alternative is to manually key the data into winfax.

Ideas? Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[Guest_imported]

I presume you are using Adobe to view the file - if so, have you tried changing the cursor to Text (click the toolbar button with the capital T on it), then select the text you need and copy and paste into a text file which you can edit at will

 

[dgillz]

Jahonas,

Thanks for the input, I did not know I could do that. However it seems I am limited to one page at a time with this method. Is there a way to overcome this? Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[Roadkill150]

Hi Don.. I might be missing the target here, but once you select the Text option in the acrobat reader, you should just be able to go over to edit and select all.. copy and paste and it should copy all pages and allow you paste into a text file.
Cheers,
-Bruce Seagate Certified RCAD Specialist.
-Bruce Thuel-Chassaigne
roadkill150@hotmail.com

 

[dgillz]

Bruce,

I tried that, but select all (Cntrl-A) in Adobe seems to be limited to all on the active page, not all the pages in the document.

Any other ideas? Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[Roadkill150]

Hi Don,
I just tried it again with adobe and am able to select all pages in the pdf file.. either by selectin cntrl-a or select all option.. perhaps it is the version of acrobat that you are using? I am trying this on version 5.. also are you trying this in a web window or standalone?
Good luck,
-Bruce Seagate Certified RCAD Specialist.
-Bruce Thuel-Chassaigne
roadkill150@hotmail.com

 

[dgillz]

Bruce,

I too am using adobe 5.0. I have tried both from a webpage and as a standalone document, although the document was donwloaded froma webpage.

I have tried copying and pasting this in Wordpad, Notepad and MS Word. All I can do is get one page at a time.

I am doing a Cntrl-A, right-click, copy, then right click, Paste into either wordpad, word or notepad.

Any ideas? Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[Roadkill150]

Hi Don.. no idea.. it has my curiosity piqued though.. i will have to try it on my machine at home.. I do have a solution for you though. Adobe has free tools available to turn their pdf files into ascii text and html etc.. the link is :

http://access.adobe.com/tools.html

let me know if this resolves the issue
-Bruce Seagate Certified RCAD Specialist.
-Bruce Thuel-Chassaigne
roadkill150@hotmail.com

 

[WillyKelleher]

Take a look at Ghostscript to convert pdf to text. It has many utilities for coverting between formats. You may have to convert to another format then to text.