Copying From Pdf Document.

[stewey]

I have the free,basic form of PDF and am using Windows XP and Microsoft Word. When I highlight a selection in the document and copy and paste it into MW, the printout has lost the paragraph format: I just get a printed sheet of a load of words arranged vertically. Anyone know how I can remedy this?

[stewey]

I should add that I don't actually print it as I can see that all I would get is a list of words in a vertical column.

[Old_Geezer]

PDF is weird like that, it's probably all the hidden code around it to show a document that was originally in a different format. Sometimes highlighting and copy/paste fails where using the buttons at the top of Adobe Reader (or whatever) does a better job. Failing that you might be better off typing it again by hand. Or if you have an OCR scanner application that might be a way forward. But that's probably more fuss than retyping.

[Graham-W]

As a last resort you could use a pdf-doc converter. there are many free ones out there.
https://www.pdftoword.com
www.pdfonline.com/pdf-to-word-converter

[stewey]

Thanks, OG; perhaps I'll look into the OCR application on my scanner.

[Zeuhl]

Try copying it to Notepad first.

That may lose all the pdf coding

[stewey]

Thanks, Graham-W; I don't think I want to download anything though. It's still in a vertical format in Notepad, Zeuhl

[Zeuhl]

Oh sorry stewey!

We are extracting copy from pdfs all the time but I'm not in the office today and can't reach the guy who mostly does it.

My guess is he would just say; 'yeah i hate Pdfs too'

[stewey]

Maybe I'll just type it out as OG said. Thanks for your suggestions, people.

[stewey]

OK, I found a way, although it seems quite convoluted. Highlight in the PDF document what you want; right click; click on "copy"; click on "Download" on the PDF bar; click on "Save File"; click "OK"; open your download; highlight and copy again; open "Notepad"; print...Wow; what an experience that was:)