No text editing?

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Spot53
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No text editing?

Post by Spot53 »

Dear technical support,

I am a new user of PDFX-Change v3 on XP sp2.
I am a bit surprised (and disappointed) not to find any tool to change/edit boddy text in an existing PDF.
Did I not look well enough?
Do I need another product of yours?

Looking froward to reading you soon.
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Post by Tracker - Clarion Support »

Hello!

I'm not sure of the answer and John Verbeeten is out of the office for a few days, but he should be able to tell you when he returns later this week.
Craig Ransom
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Spot53
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Post by Spot53 »

Thanks for your answer.
Let's wait a few days for Mr. Verbeeten to come back.

Kind Regards,
Spot53
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John - Tracker Supp
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Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Hi,

We offer no tool at this moment in time to directly edit a complex PDF, we hope to offer this during 2007.

However - we do offer the ability to extract content to a Word or RTF file for editing (though OCR is not possible - so image content remains image content if scanned etc) or you can add text as a watermark on a page in a specified position on a page so you can add text this way - the renumbering of pages in the PDf-Tools application is a perfetc example of this.

HTH
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

Best regards
Tracker Support
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ssbn
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Post by ssbn »

Tracker Support wrote:Hi,

We offer no tool at this moment in time to directly edit a complex PDF, we hope to offer this during 2007.

However - we do offer the ability to extract content to a Word or RTF file for editing (though OCR is not possible - so image content remains image content if scanned etc) or you can add text as a watermark on a page in a specified position on a page so you can add text this way - the renumbering of pages in the PDf-Tools application is a perfetc example of this.

HTH
Is there a way to edit text in created .pdf files, I cannot seem to figure it out if there is (PDF-Tools 3.5) I can print to a pdf file but can't edit the text. Can this be done? without extracting to a word file/RTF (when I xfer pdf to word it is all messed up. Dosnt seem to xfer correctly to word 2003
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John - Tracker Supp
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Post by John - Tracker Supp »

PDF's dont 'like' to be edited I am afraid - the PDF format was intended as a means to distribute documents in a way in which they could be viewed and look exactly the same on any PC on which they were viewed - the format is a 'Hi-bred' of the Postscript printer language and this really does not lend itself to being edited at all.

Therefore whilst you could add a watermark with a background and text and overlay this over the text you wish to 'edit' its hardly ideal and would require you know the specific X,Y co-ordinates of the area you wish to edit.

Therefore you really do need to take it back to a format that is designed for editing such as .DOC and, as you have seen, this in itself is a challenge.

If you have any quantity of this work to do - my best suggestion would be that you look at a product specifically designed for this purpose such as ABBYY's PDFTransformer (http://www.pdftransformer.com) this does not try and extract the content at all - but converts all the content to an image first - then OCR's and reformats the content into a .DOC file for editing - and its the power of their OCR library that's the key to the success of the product.

you can download a free demo from the above link to check out its abilities.

Finally - we do intend to extend the extraction options in a later release ourselves - but this will not be for some months at the earliest - when we hope our own OCR library in development will have progressed sufficiently to be a genuine option.

HTH
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

Best regards
Tracker Support
http://www.tracker-software.com
Spot53
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Post by Spot53 »

You might want to have a look at the Adobe Professional product.
There PDF text editing is fairly easy for a user.
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Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Sure - but also very expensive by comparison - and to be frank - not always as reliable/profficient as you might expect.

But certainly if you are working with PDF's day in / day out and require a real arsenal of functions, it would be foolish to say that Acrobat Proffessional is not the right tool - because it is.
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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ssbn
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Thanks

Post by ssbn »

Thanks for the recommendations.. only need it for a couple of documents ATM.. I will try the program you mentioned. I don't think I would use the pdf programs enough to warrant the expense of the adobe pro stuff.. everything here in PDF-Tools is really good and I really like being able to print right into a pdf file..
Thanks all
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John - Tracker Supp
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Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Pleasure :)
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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bengel99
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What PDF-tools is missing

Post by bengel99 »

I came to this forum to see if I was missing something, but it looks like I'm not.

I don't understand the technical details of .pdfs, but what I can tell you...

It would be so nice to be able to open my pdf tools, click on a button to open a pdf document, and make some simple "text overlays" on top of the document and save.

The reason, I recive all my faxes via email which come in a .pdf I send all my faxes via internext fax service, usually via pdf.

Of the faxes I receive, many are forms that just need a few things filled out. Rather than printing, hand entering the required items, then scanning back to pdf to send via fax, it would just make my day to open a quick and easy text overlay tool to fill out these forms.

My opinion, this would be a huge addition to your tools. Doesn't need to be fancy, just needs to be able to add/position text on top of an existing pdf.

Thanks for great products.
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John - Tracker Supp
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Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Hi,

Try the FREE PDF-XChange Viewer - see the 'Tools' menu -> Basic Tools -> Typewriter, I suspect this is what you are looking for ?

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXVwer.zip

However - please note - until Build 114 released this weekend/early next week - these typewritten notes will not be printed onto paper - build 114 will add this feature.

HTH
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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chicks
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Post by chicks »

Very, very impressive product. Well designed and easy to use. A few bugs are apparent (Stamps don't appear to work yet, text form fields won't fill), but markup, annotations and form saving in a free product, without expensive "Rights Enabling" - look out Adobe!

Any possiblity that you will be adding highlighting and attachments capabilities to a future release?
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John - Tracker Supp
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Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Hi,

Text Search/Highlight will be added early next week and Forms with Javascript and stamps is close behind.

There will then be a period of consolidation and minor/cosmetic changes to the Free version, after which we will begin work on Combining our PDF-Tools Application into a PRO version of the Viewer as a 'paid' for, more complete WYSIWYG solution to create/Modify files - where this makes sense to do so.

Thanks for the kind words - always appreciated :)
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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Tracker Support
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