Summary: PDF format is an excellent way to share documents knowing that they'll display the same regardless of where viewed. You can do more, sometimes.
I seem to be "out of step" concerning your delight in pdf documents, which I find totally user unfriendly. I do a lot of editing, copying and pasting (for personal commitments and study purposes). I cannot do that with pdf documents and often finish up frustrated after wasting a lot of time trying to buck the (system) document or by laboriously 'copy typing' a particular extract that I need. Am I missing something here in my understanding and use of pdf documents, which would account for my inability to edit or copy and paste extracts in the same way that I can with, say, WORD documents ?
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Yes, there is something you're missing.
But you're very much not alone.
The missing link is simply this: what, really, is the purpose of PDF format?
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PDF documents were originally intended as a digital replacement for paper, nothing more. Features like copy/paste were never intended or even initially implemented. Its primary purpose is for reading documents, and doing so in a way that the documents look the same, as much as is possible, across a wide variety of computers and devices.
Think of PDF format as a photocopy of a document and you won't be far off the mark. They look the same as the original, and they're portable - they look the same no matter what computer you view them on.
PDF is, primarily, a portable reading and display format, it does that very, very well.
Of course like all things computer, over time features have been added. Many PDF documents, depending on how they are created, can in fact be used as the source for a copy/paste.
There are two problems:
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the author of a PDF can elect to disable that functionality. Thus I can create a PDF in which copy is disabled. Why? Copyright and content theft protection are the normal reasons.
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Not all PDFs contain text - some contain images. Images of pages. This would be the equivalent of taking a digital picture of a page in a book and pasting that into a word document. You would not be able to select or copy pieces of that page as text.
PDFs were also never intended to be editable, and current programs that allow you to do so are not 100% effective depending specifically on the PDF you're trying to use it on.
PDF is a wonderful, portable reading format. But you're correct, if you're trying to do much more than read, it may well fall short, depending on the specifics of the documents you're attempting to operate on.
Related:
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Just what is PDF format, how do I view it, and why do people use it? PDF format allows documents to be viewed across many different types of computers and operating systems, and look the same everywhere.
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How do I convert a Word document into a PDF file? PDF, or Portable Document Format, is a common format for sharing documents. Turning your Word document into a PDF can be as simple as printing.
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Why does my Microsoft Word document display differently on different computers? Microsoft Word documents display differently on different systems because of differences between the systems. Getting Microsoft Word documents to display identically typically means processing them into something else.
Article C3844 - August 20, 2009
Foxit can help in copy and past functions assuming it is not an image file and Foxit PDF Editor is very effective at editing PDF files.
Posted by: AJ at August 25, 2009 9:36 AMGoogle Docs can copy and paste from PDF docs. At least on the ones that I just tried it can.
AG
Posted by: AG Wright at August 25, 2009 10:01 AMJeez I just don't understand why everything has been made so difficult,B4 PDF I always took a "screenshot" of anything I wanted.Of course ya sure cant edit the text without speding a lot of time, but you have an exact copy.Someone mentioned OCR which is the best bet to be able to do much of anything with a lot of PDF files.Something I have done since I started using computers is to save something using any available format txt,rtf.doc,html,etc. and just play with it to see what I can do with the file.I don't really see why everyone thinks PDF is so cool,2me its just another app that I don't really need that much, Its just the flavor of the week app that ppl must have for some unknown reason, ppl send stuff in that format and I'm forced to deal with it.IMHO this doesn't make the file anymore secure than any other format.If I really want to take the time its possible to take a screenshot (many free software versions to choose from)and edit from there.In fact its a bunch of work with no payoff,but that's how I learned about computers and what makes em tick.
I was told a long time ago to save a file I wanna play with and use the copy to experiment so when I mess up the file I still got the original to rely on.Jeez I love this stuff....LOL.
MIKLO
Posted by: MIKLO at August 25, 2009 11:59 AMMiklo (previous post) has an option (screen print) that I frequently use, however there is a new app. out there, PDFTOWORD.COM, that sounds like it might also do the trick when you need to do changes.
Posted by: Roger b at August 25, 2009 12:08 PMTry PDF to word converter from hellopdf.com, it is similar to the pdftoword converter but can be downloaded for free.
Posted by: Jim at August 25, 2009 5:07 PMFor students who want to copy passages from PDF files, Foxit software works fine. There is an icon you can use to Select the passage, after which a ^C (control C) will copy it to the clip board - or better still, use a program like Clipmate. BTW, I learned a few things from these comments - keep 'em coming.
Posted by: Robert Rosenstein at August 26, 2009 6:10 AMRobert
Why not convert it to a word doc, then edit it. Then convert it back to a PDF. All you would need is word and adobe acrobat.
Posted by: jack mccurdy at August 26, 2009 7:19 AMIf you are using Office 2003 (or later), you must have 'Microsoft Office Document Image Writer' on your Control Panel's Printers and Faxes.
Posted by: William Surya Permana at August 26, 2009 8:33 PMThen to convert your PDF to DOC, do these:
1.Open your PDF file.
2.Print it by using 'Microsoft Office Document Image Writer'.
3.Save the image as MDI.
4.Open the MDI file using 'Microsoft Office Document Imaging'
5.Click Tools > 'Send Text to Word'
6.Last, follow the instructions. ^^ and.. it's done.
You can't copy/paste because of the restriction set by the creator. That's the so called PDF Owner Password.
Posted by: Melvin James at August 27, 2009 11:50 PMIn fact, you can just convert the PDF to Word then you can copy/paste, or even edit as you wish.But legally of course.
Not many PDF to Word converters support this function, especailly the online converter.
So you can try AnyBizSoft PDF to Word converter to change the protected PDF to Word. It's a very cool program, the output quality is excellent. You can have a try.
I use the Snipping tool in Vista and W7 to copy and paste. Much better than PrintScreen as you can copy small portions.
Posted by: Andrew Hardie at October 30, 2009 5:24 AMYou have to enable Tablet though.