Which Adobe Product for .PDF to .DOC?

[abrogard]

I just want to either edit .pdf files as they are or change them into something that I can edit, such as a Word .doc

I've got Acrobat,Photoshop and Premiere and none of them seem to do the job, though Photoshop comes close, sort of.

Can I do it with these products? Or what else do I need? I'm totally confused by Adobe's product range and their forum site offers no help... it forced me into a tedious many, many page questionnaire.....

There's something wrong with them...

Anyway... can anyone help, please?

regards,

ab

 

[melmitts]

I have Adobe Acrobat 7.0 and one of the "Save As" options it Microsoft Word (*.doc). Usually works on the documents that I create but not on all 'others'.

Mel

 

[abrogard]

Thanks for the tip, Mel.

I've got Acrobat 5 and it offers me no such choice.

I got Solid Converter and it seems to be pretty good.

Wouldn't do this file I've got though. It's a spec sheet I've got to forward on while hiding the name of the source and it seems to be written in blue ink on a white background, with pretty poor printing - messy like old typewriters used to do.

Converter gave me a message something about it being a graphic over text and sure enough I can (in Photoshop) select a single graphic that covers the whole page, resize it, delete it and find a mishmash of strange characters and signs in natural black on white background underneath.

That is: converter doesn't try to convert the image on top. And does a poor job of converting the text underneath.

Now what a strange thing! What's going on here? Is this something to do with layers I wonder? (I've never worked with them, don't do this sort of stuff usually).

Perhaps it wasn't Adobe that made that .pdf but it's pdf and I would have thought there'd be an easy way to get it back to it's true parts but it don't seem to be so!!

 

[bkrike]

PDF's are not made to be editable. That is why people use them! I send off sensitive documents in PDF format, semi-secure in the knowledge that the PDF is not a format that is easy to deconstruct. IT IS ONE OF THE MAIN BENEFITS OF PDF'S. (I am not saying they are engraved in stone, but they may as well be for most end users.)

If the author of the document in question wanted you to edit it, he would send you the original.


Acrobat 5 is only a reader. You need pro or some other software to have any chance at editing.

 

[melmitts]

I have Adobe Acrobat 7.0.5 Professional and I can save documents to Microsoft Word and edit them. That said, in most cases, you can not edit a document authored by someone else. In Adobe Acrobat 7 you have the option when you create the document to allow editing and most people choose NO. After all it is their document. If you crate your own document you can edit it.

Mel

 

[abrogard]

Yes, well that's well said and I thank you both for taking the trouble to say it.

I've never seen it said so clearly. Certainly never by Adobe (not that I spend much time reading Adobe ads I hasten to add).

It is what I thought was the case, though.

But I persevere with looking for 'decoders' because

(a) I need to - I'm in business as an agent, sure the vendor and buyer would love to cut me out and convey their names and addresses to each other before paying me for my services but that's not what I'm going to let happen, they'll know each other soon enough and I'll be out of the loop.

(a).1 Of course I don't absolutely 'need to' - I could rewrite these spec sheets and product lists but that's very labour intensive, I naturally try to avoid it. But can't always.

(b) There's many coding schemes and most include a decoding method. Even .pdf (which in fact is not proprietory to adobe) as witness the decoder I've got, what is it, 'solid decoder' or something.

Given the vagueness (to me at least) of adobe's publicity concerning their products and their functions I wasn't to know that this function wasn't clearly and simply available right there on some menu choice, even if three deep or something.


It's interesting to note that New Scientist recently reported that the SHA algorithm has been compromised. Now there's a turn up for you.


I now have a better take on the whole thing - thanks in large part to your unequivocal statement of the purpose of .pdf and I can see how, given that it is an image file and not any kind of text or word processor file, you can make such a file from absolutely any concatenation of text and pictures with a bewildering multitude of fonts and kernings and borders and ornaments and that picture would be simply impossible to 'decode' under ordinary circumstances.

So my search is finished. I really never did need much more than the ability to cut things out. I could at any time have taken a picture myself of that picture (the pdf) and edited the picture and forwarded the edited pic. That, then, would not be a pdf file and I worried about that.

But what's to worry? Even if it were a pdf I forwarded the recipient couldn't do anything with it anyway - that's not what it is for. So my .jpg or .gif is just as good.

Except it betrays that it is not the original. Well, everyone knows that in my business and expects it and doesn't care.


So that's the route I'll take in future and have it done in a trice. Convert the .pdf to a picture and edit the picture and forward it.

100% successful. Where conversion programmes such as the one I've got will make mistakes with difficult print, formulae and whatnot.

regards,

ab

 

[MarcusStringer]

Jeez,

Go out and buy Enfocus Pitstop, This allow you to edit PDF to a degree.
Also remove some Watermarks as per your Post in the other tread.

http://www.enfocus.com

http://www.pdfstore.com

Be aware...

These editing tools are for editing PDF files.

Acrobat was only ever made for the transport of a standard file Document.
It was designed to be the final stage.

It was not designed to be edited.

Having said that the editing programs out there like pitstop do a good job, but with a limited capasity,eg it can edit text ok, not so good with reflowing text.

Try them, make your own mind up.

These people are only pointing out to you that if you can not go back to who ever created the document and get them to change it then maybe you really shouldn't be changing it...

We don't know who you are or what you do, there has been other people in this forum who are clearly tried to do lthings they shouldn't legally.

This is why people in this forum don't answer or are quick to point out that these people should not be doing what they are trying to do...

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Infinity306]

Acrobat 5 is not only a reader... there are reader version of all acrobat's, but there is also a regular version too.. I can edit and change text just fine in most pdf's with the text select tool.. and in others there is a PDF Password remover available from emetrix for $25 that works pretty well if it is a password protected pdf..

 

[BenRowe]

We currently use OmniPage Pro in my office to ocr pdf files and then save them as word docs. I've read the new version of WordPerfect (X3) can import and export pdfs. Also, the new version of word (coming out late this year) will be able to open them too.

 

[abrogard]

I'll second that. I'm glad you reminded me. I used it years ago, it was wonderful.

Way to go.

For .pdf go OCR.