[Macworld]

Post your comments for How to convert PDFs to Word (and other formats) here

[JEndahl]

I always forget about Automator and the nice enhancements it provides. Thanks for the reminder, and quick tutorial. Useful stuff!

[bbh]

Does nothing. Creates an appropriately named document that is blank.

[macalma]

I followed the instructions and made the Automator application but when I run it I always get an error message.

'The action"Extract PDF Text" encountered an error. Check the actionʼs properties and try running the workflow again.

The Log gave the error as: -[CPParagraph endParagraphMarker]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x200b5e420

So what to do now?

[kirkmc]

bbh, on 10 October 2011 - 09:10 AM, said:

Does nothing. Creates an appropriately named document that is blank.

What exactly "does nothing?"

[youclay]

Nitro Software has an excellent free online and for-fee offline pdf to word conversion. [http://www.pdftoword.com/] We have used it for many of my kids homework assignments. The pdf is uploaded and a .doc is returned to your email.

[dennishenley]

If you have Acrobat Pro, there's an Export to Word and Export to RTF option. In the latest version of Acrobat (X), this export really works well.

The problem, though, is that when you converted a complicated layout into Word, the resulting new file is not always the easiest to edit or use. Since the export program is trying to mimic the layout, it uses all the tricks that Word has available to make it match but that doesn't leave for an easy-to-edit file.

[kirkmc]

macalma, on 10 October 2011 - 09:32 AM, said:

I followed the instructions and made the Automator application but when I run it I always get an error message.

'The action"Extract PDF Text" encountered an error. Check the actionʼs properties and try running the workflow again.

The Log gave the error as: -[CPParagraph endParagraphMarker]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x200b5e420

So what to do now?

No idea. Does your PDF have text, or is it a simple graphic?

[JEndahl]

bbh, on 10 October 2011 - 09:10 AM, said:

Does nothing. Creates an appropriately named document that is blank.

Sorry to hear that. I tested it with a 90-page pdf and it worked as described for me.

[srollans]

bbh, on 10 October 2011 - 09:10 AM, said:

Does nothing. Creates an appropriately named document that is blank.

Many PDF appear to contain text but are merely image files -- pictures of the text, rather than the text itself. Take the file you tried to convert, and open it in Preview. You'll find that you cannot select portions of the text. You'll only be able to select entire pages.

I expect to get a lot of use out of this workflow. Up until now, I've selected and copied the text, but this does a much better job.

[hnickm]

Or for $20 a year, subscribe to Adobe's on-line Export-to-PDF service, which so far, has been perfect.

[vivitar]

Try AlienConverter for documents, images and Audio
www.aliencrypt.com
does a solid job for $10 or so

[manipulator]

another option that needs to be considered is to upload to google docs with conversion option turned on

[LynneLaMaster]

Would it be possible to create an Automator action that would take all Mail flagged with a specifically colored, say, blue, flag and move it to a specific mail folder?