Pesky PDF to RTF

enarchay · 05-29-2009, 01:06 AM

Since a few PDFs I have don't show up good on my ereader (text truncates, paragraphs are indistinguishable, and so on), and I can't get Calibre to separate paragraphs when I convert them to LRF or EPUB (see my other post in the Calibre section), my only other option for now is to convert these PDFs to RTF. However, I'm having a problem.

I tried using this service to convert my PDFs to RTF, but the end result ends up being about 9 MB. When I upload it to my reader and turn it on, it freezes up and I have to reset it and remove the file before it will work again. I'm not sure why this is happening, but the RTF file looks good when I view it in Word.

What else can I do to get a nice looking RTF file from PDF that I can put on my ereader? Any ideas?

enarchay · 05-30-2009, 02:16 PM

Anyone?

delphidb96 · 05-30-2009, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enarchay

Anyone?

Ummm... *I* use Adobe Acrobat. Works great! And it allows you to export to html (3.x/4.x), xml, txt and Word .doc.

Derek

Elfwreck · 05-30-2009, 11:54 PM

Suggestion: edit the Word file before putting it into the Reader. Docs converted from PDF can carry some weird (and often useless) settings that make for huge filesizes.

Change the whole thing to a single font, pick some margin settings & set them for the whole doc, make sure the whole thing is using a single page size, and so on. If you don't care about font sizes, make it all a single size. Check for section breaks and remove them if that's feasible.

Use "save as" instead of "save" to create a new file, instead of adding changes to the old one; this also condenses the file.

mpd123 · 05-31-2009, 04:13 AM

hi

when i need to convert a pdf doc i open it up,select auto scroll,select all, copy.
save the text as a txt or word file and then play about with it until happy.

cheers mick.

namiamy · 05-31-2009, 04:15 AM

you need to convert your pdf file to text document.
you can download the converter from here

enarchay · 05-31-2009, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by namiamy

you need to convert your pdf file to text document.
you can download the converter from here

Doesn't text remove all formatting?

delphidb96 · 05-31-2009, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enarchay

Doesn't text remove all formatting?

Yep! Which is why you'd do better to convert to Word .doc and then open in Open Office or Atlantis Word Processor and then save to .rtf. Keeps the formatting but let's you slim down the file by removing all the *JUNK* Microsoft Word puts in.

Derek

kacir · 05-31-2009, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enarchay

What else can I do to get a nice looking RTF file from PDF that I can put on my ereader? Any ideas?

- You can try to run your pdf file through an OCR program. See my other posts with "OCR" text

- you can try to open your big rtf file in Word and copy and paste the text into Windows Write program (Text editor you can find in Accessories on your PC).
Or try opening it directly in Write, reformat is slightly and save it in rtf.
On Linux you can try open, reformat and save the rtf file using Ted text editor.
On Mac you can try opening reformatting and saving the rtf file using default small word processor that is part of system install.

frabjous · 06-02-2009, 11:55 AM

There's another active thread here about PDF to Word conversion. I'd try one of those, and then use Word (or OpenOffice writer if you don't have word) to convert the Word file to .RTF. That should preserve formatting, ideally.

Generally, converting from PDF to another format is tricky business. You're better off finding a way to make the PDF itself work, or try to obtain the original source file used to make the PDF if at all possible.

katysax · 06-15-2009, 12:35 PM

You can use the Mobipocket book creator (free tool at mobipocket) to convert the book to XML and then open it it Word.

DixieGal · 06-15-2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpd123

hi

when i need to convert a pdf doc i open it up,select auto scroll,select all, copy.
save the text as a txt or word file and then play about with it until happy.

cheers mick.

That's what I do also. It works great 9 out of 10 times. I "select all," copy, paste into Word, and save it as .txt. You are right that rtf saves as a much bigger file. .txt works just fine and is a fraction of the size of rtf.

Then just play with the formatting until it looks the way you want it to look.

05-29-2009, 01:06 AM	#1
enarchay Zealot Posts: 144 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Pesky PDF to RTF Since a few PDFs I have don't show up good on my ereader (text truncates, paragraphs are indistinguishable, and so on), and I can't get Calibre to separate paragraphs when I convert them to LRF or EPUB (see my other post in the Calibre section), my only other option for now is to convert these PDFs to RTF. However, I'm having a problem. I tried using this service to convert my PDFs to RTF, but the end result ends up being about 9 MB. When I upload it to my reader and turn it on, it freezes up and I have to reset it and remove the file before it will work again. I'm not sure why this is happening, but the RTF file looks good when I view it in Word. What else can I do to get a nice looking RTF file from PDF that I can put on my ereader? Any ideas?

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05-30-2009, 02:16 PM	#2
enarchay Zealot Posts: 144 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Anyone?

05-30-2009, 11:54 PM	#4
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,185 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	Suggestion: edit the Word file before putting it into the Reader. Docs converted from PDF can carry some weird (and often useless) settings that make for huge filesizes. Change the whole thing to a single font, pick some margin settings & set them for the whole doc, make sure the whole thing is using a single page size, and so on. If you don't care about font sizes, make it all a single size. Check for section breaks and remove them if that's feasible. Use "save as" instead of "save" to create a new file, instead of adding changes to the old one; this also condenses the file.

05-31-2009, 04:13 AM	#5
mpd123 Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 8038 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: liverpool Device: kobo glo / samsung note 10.1	hi when i need to convert a pdf doc i open it up,select auto scroll,select all, copy. save the text as a txt or word file and then play about with it until happy. cheers mick.

05-31-2009, 04:15 AM	#6
namiamy Banned Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	you need to convert your pdf file to text document. you can download the converter from here

06-02-2009, 11:55 AM	#10
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	There's another active thread here about PDF to Word conversion. I'd try one of those, and then use Word (or OpenOffice writer if you don't have word) to convert the Word file to .RTF. That should preserve formatting, ideally. Generally, converting from PDF to another format is tricky business. You're better off finding a way to make the PDF itself work, or try to obtain the original source file used to make the PDF if at all possible.

06-15-2009, 12:35 PM	#11
katysax Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 222 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Los Angeles Device: Kindle2, Kindle DX, prs 505	You can use the Mobipocket book creator (free tool at mobipocket) to convert the book to XML and then open it it Word.

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