PDF to Word

[Echelon]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel I am trying to convert a PDF file to Word for Mac. On a PC it usually is in the drop down menu in Word can't find it on the MAC please help. Thanks!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I am trying to convert a PDF file to Word for Mac. On a PC it usually
is in the drop down menu in Word can't find it on the MAC please help.
Thanks!

In all Mac application, you can save as PDF through the regular Print dialog.
In Word, you can also use the Save As command to save as a PDF.

Corentin

(oh, and it's not MAC, which usually stands for Media Access Control,
it's Mac, as in Macintosh ;-) )

 

[Rob Schneider]

Far as I know, Mac Word won't open a PDF file. I've had some measure of
success with simple PDFs by using Adobe Acrobat (on Windows). I've not
tried Word Windows. Perhaps you can use a copy of Word Windows since
you know it works and then use Word Mac to work on it.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Echelon]

Thanks for replying - the issue is converting a PDF file to Word file. Usually in Word on the PC it in the drop down File menu and the sub menu list something like pdf convert...not seeing anything similar in Word for Mac... I don't have Windows only Mac.

Far as I know, Mac Word won't open a PDF file. I've had some measure of success with simple PDFs by using Adobe Acrobat (on Windows). I've not tried Word Windows. Perhaps you can use a copy of Word Windows since you know it works and then use Word Mac to work on it.

 

[Echelon]

>

 I am trying to convert a PDF file to Word for Mac. On a PC it usually is in the drop down menu in Word can't find it on the MAC please help.

>
> In all Mac application, you can save as PDF through the regular Print dialog. In Word, you can also use the Save As command to save as a PDF.
>
> Corentin
>
> (oh, and it's not MAC, which usually stands for Media Access Control,
> it's Mac, as in Macintosh ;-) )

Thanks for the humor, since one can't hear my fustration, used caps to emphasize - I responed to rmschneider below - please see my reply to him. Merci!

>
>
> --
> --- Office:Mac MVP http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/ ---
> http://www.mvps.org - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
> MVPs are not MS employees - Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
> Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me - Retirez "NoSpam" pour m'�crire
>
>

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Thanks for the humor, since one can't hear my fustration, used caps to
emphasize - I responed to rmschneider below - please see my reply to him.
Merci!

"Mac" also stands for McDonalds here in Japan
The same word, pronounced "makku" with a full stop between
the "ma" and the "ku", is used both for Macintosh computers
and as a widely-used abbreviation for the fast food chain.

Just a little trivia.

Jeff Chapman

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Open acrobat 8.x or 9.x Mac. (x means number such as .1,.2.,.3, etc).

Now (if the original document is a text document and not a scan/image)
go to File menu > Sav As... . Now choose word doc. or rtf. Try word Doc
first. save file now open using word 2008.

 

[John McGhie]

You can't convert a PDF file to a Word document. A PDF file does not
contain enough information to create a Word document from it.

The best you can do is to copy out some of the the font formatting, using
Adobe Acrobat.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel I am
trying to convert a PDF file to Word for Mac. On a PC it usually is in the
drop down menu in Word can't find it on the MAC please help. Thanks!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Have you tried Acrobat 9. If this newsgroup permitted attaching screen
shots I'd prove it to you, that if you have Acrobat it can convert a
Text based PDF to a .doc (word document) or to .rtf (which most any word
processor can open.)

The CAVEAT is: It has to be a text based PDF That is it was created from
some word processor or ascii text program). IF its a scan from a
document unless (and I mean unless) it was scanned at least a minimum
depth of 600dpi and you used Acrobats OCR feature to make it search-able
text. All bets are off if you've used Acrobat's PDF Optimizer > user dat
and choose to remove user info and metadata to reduce the PDF's size.
Then it may have nothing to go by.

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Oh and send me a PDF based on a Word Document to me and I'll send you
the Word document I can create from it. Can be something generic for
easy of down and upload make it a Page or two only.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Open acrobat 8.x or 9.x Mac. (x means number such as .1,.2.,.3, etc).

Now (if the original document is a text document and not a scan/image)
go to File menu > Sav As... . Now choose word doc. or rtf. Try word Doc
first. save file now open using word 2008.

Silly me... I understood the question the other way around :-\
Otherwise you still have the option of using OCR software.
I just read somewhere that Google has a free OCR solution around (send
the file to google docs and get it back as text).

Corentin

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

Yes, I have tried Acrobat 9

What people need to understand is that a PDF file does not contain the
object model from the Word document. PostScript is a page description
language: it describes which parts of the page are black.

Acrobat 9 is capable of producing an RTF document that also turns those
parts of a page black. And you can open that in Word and save it as a Word
document.

But what you get back is not the original Word document that created the
PDF: you get a "picture" of the original document, "drawn" in Word.

It's a difficult distinction to make conceptually: but becomes immediately
apparent as soon as you try to edit the thing. None of the numbering works.
None of the drawings can be edited. All the fields are gone. The TOC no
longer works. The damage is huge

Cheers

Have you tried Acrobat 9. If this newsgroup permitted attaching screen
shots I'd prove it to you, that if you have Acrobat it can convert a
Text based PDF to a .doc (word document) or to .rtf (which most any word
processor can open.)

The CAVEAT is: It has to be a text based PDF That is it was created from
some word processor or ascii text program). IF its a scan from a
document unless (and I mean unless) it was scanned at least a minimum
depth of 600dpi and you used Acrobats OCR feature to make it search-able
text. All bets are off if you've used Acrobat's PDF Optimizer > user dat
and choose to remove user info and metadata to reduce the PDF's size.
Then it may have nothing to go by.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

But you also have to remember if its already a PDF all that has been
destroyed anyway. The situation where you'd use PDF to word /rtf would
be in a case where you have no access to original anyway.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

Yes, you are quite correct, and that's an important point you are making,
which people need to understand.

The act of converting a Word document to PDF utterly destroys the Word
document. PDF is DESIGNED to prevent anyone (including the author) from
making material change to the document, and it succeeds at that.

My point is that in modern commercial practice, nobody would waste the time
it takes attempting to reconstruct a Word document from a PDF. You would
email the author for the original. If you can't get it, you would just go
without. Just save the text out of the PDF: that's the only valuable part,
anyway. Reformat it properly after you get it into Word.

Cheers

But you also have to remember if its already a PDF all that has been
destroyed anyway. The situation where you'd use PDF to word /rtf would
be in a case where you have no access to original anyway.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi John;

You know I'm not one to put words in your mouth but I do wish you'd
stated this point just a little differently...

Yes, you are quite correct, and that's an important point you are making,
which people need to understand.

How about replacing "an" with "one of many"? ;-)

<well-intentioned rant>
Another that's tied to this is that there seems to be a common misconception
that filename extensions are nothing more than an indicator to the user of
what program was used to create the file. And further, that all files are
the same, it's just the content of the file & the cute little icon that
distinguish one from the other. I believe that's what leads people to change
the extensions on filenames expecting to have success in opening the file.

In all fairness, though, the 'industry' has fostered this as well as so many
other misunderstandings because of the liberal -- often inappropriate -- use
of terminology, "convert" being just one example. Any given file does not
get *converted* from one format to another as you well know. The file is
read, then a new file is created in the different format. In order to do
that the program being used must be able to read the original format & write
the new file in the preferred format.
<end of rant>

Please forgive my self-indulgence

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bob:

Well, you know I am not going to disagree with you -- you're preaching to
the converted in me

Just yesterday, I sent a post explaining that the file name extension is a
label that tells the opening application how the insides of a file are
organised.

If the content of the file is not what it says on the tin, the application
that opens the file probably can't read it at all.

The insides of a PDF file is like a "picture": it tells Adobe Acrobat where
to put the ink on the paper. The inside of a Word file is like a
construction site: piles of raw materials all carefully labelled so Word can
build a house from them.

And the "industry" is determined to make this worse. They don't want to
tell users how it works, to make it more difficult for users to blame them
when it doesn't.

Cheers

Hi John;

You know I'm not one to put words in your mouth but I do wish you'd
stated this point just a little differently...



How about replacing "an" with "one of many"? ;-)

<well-intentioned rant>
Another that's tied to this is that there seems to be a common misconception
that filename extensions are nothing more than an indicator to the user of
what program was used to create the file. And further, that all files are
the same, it's just the content of the file & the cute little icon that
distinguish one from the other. I believe that's what leads people to change
the extensions on filenames expecting to have success in opening the file.

In all fairness, though, the 'industry' has fostered this as well as so many
other misunderstandings because of the liberal -- often inappropriate -- use
of terminology, "convert" being just one example. Any given file does not
get *converted* from one format to another as you well know. The file is
read, then a new file is created in the different format. In order to do
that the program being used must be able to read the original format & write
the new file in the preferred format.
<end of rant>

Please forgive my self-indulgence

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

I have actually done as you describe. Convert to Word (RTF) from a PDF
then open in Word check to make sure formatting was correct, if not
correct, then save as Word Doc.

But it was not on a very large document. I had to do it twice when I was
Treasurer of an Electronics Association. (I had other jobs I did as well
and it was one of these other jobs that I had to do this.)

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Didn't meant to start a feud. ;-)

Hi Bob:

Well, you know I am not going to disagree with you -- you're preaching to
the converted in me

Just yesterday, I sent a post explaining that the file name extension is a
label that tells the opening application how the insides of a file are
organised.

If the content of the file is not what it says on the tin, the application
that opens the file probably can't read it at all.

The insides of a PDF file is like a "picture": it tells Adobe Acrobat where
to put the ink on the paper. The inside of a Word file is like a
construction site: piles of raw materials all carefully labelled so Word can
build a house from them.

And the "industry" is determined to make this worse. They don't want to
tell users how it works, to make it more difficult for users to blame them
when it doesn't.

Cheers



This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

Oh you did too mean to start a feud However, in this case, all you
provoked was violent agreement

Yes, I know you can get the font formatting out of a PDF with Acrobat. And
that may be fine if all the document contains is "text".

But if it did: why would you bother with Word? Use something like TextEdit
or Pages: it's faster and easier.

But as soon as you start to add complex content (headers, footers, tables,
TOC, Index, cross-references, hyperlinks...) the Word is your weapon, and
PDF is utterly fatal

Cheers

I have actually done as you describe. Convert to Word (RTF) from a PDF
then open in Word check to make sure formatting was correct, if not
correct, then save as Word Doc.

But it was not on a very large document. I had to do it twice when I was
Treasurer of an Electronics Association. (I had other jobs I did as well
and it was one of these other jobs that I had to do this.)

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

The idea behind PDF is have something universal to view a document. Not
everyone (Mac or PC has Office-word or. And with word you can only have
one copy of office on any one computer (Desktop/Laptop). Adobe Reader is
is free and as many copies for each computer can be downloaded and
installed as is necessary.

But it sole purpose is viewing or printing from viewed documents or fill
out forms. Even Adobe people say Acrobat is not a text Editor. You
supposed fix all the spelling errors. and do all the formatting in your
word processor then create the PDF as the end product.

Now if MS could come up with a Plugin or extension for Web Browsers
where they could read Word or Excel documents directly and be able to
edit and change them. Acrobat wouldn't be around.