| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | Poll: Which PDF converter do you prefer? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | Mary Worby 
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:50
German to English
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| Copy and paste | Feb 24, 2012 |
I've tried a couple of PDF converters but found nothing that produces satisfactory results. The resulting Word documents are full of text boxes, dodgy formatting and almost invariably impossible to translate in Trados as they are so full of tags. I have reached the stage now where my preferred method is simply to copy and paste the text out of the PDF file into a Word document. It is more time-consuming as there is post-editing required, but at least the results are clean.
If anyone... See more I've tried a couple of PDF converters but found nothing that produces satisfactory results. The resulting Word documents are full of text boxes, dodgy formatting and almost invariably impossible to translate in Trados as they are so full of tags. I have reached the stage now where my preferred method is simply to copy and paste the text out of the PDF file into a Word document. It is more time-consuming as there is post-editing required, but at least the results are clean.
If anyone can recommend a decent product that produces good, clean results, I'd be all ears. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:50
French to English
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| I said Abbyy but... | Feb 24, 2012 |
like Mary, I find it can create a fair few problems with formatting. However, for scanned documents, it's certainly the best in my opinion. If I receive an extractable pdf, I much prefer Solid, which is considerably cheaper and produces output with identical format to the orginal. I wouldn't be without either program, especially as more and more jobs seem to be arriving as pdf files these days
| | | | | scanned documents | Feb 24, 2012 |
Mary Worby wrote:
I've tried a couple of PDF converters but found nothing that produces satisfactory results. The resulting Word documents are full of text boxes, dodgy formatting and almost invariably impossible to translate in Trados as they are so full of tags. I have reached the stage now where my preferred method is simply to copy and paste the text out of the PDF file into a Word document. It is more time-consuming as there is post-editing required, but at least the results are clean.
If anyone can recommend a decent product that produces good, clean results, I'd be all ears.
If the document is scanned, it can not be copy/pasted, because the entire page is seen as a picture. Also copy/paste won't work sometimes for languages with non-Latin letters, like Russian and Greek, even if the pdf file was created from word or another word processor, not scanned.
As about the poll, I chose ABBYY Fine Reader (I have version 9), but only because I have it, I don't know how other software work and I can not compare. I didn't vote what I prefer, but what I have and use.
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| Smart PDF Converter Pro | Feb 24, 2012 |
I use this one. But it is only useful, when the PDF-file was created out of a word document. Otherwise I also only receive one picture I cannot work with.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 15:50
Spanish to English
+ ...
I use Solid Converter PDF v4, have had it for 2 or 3 years and haven't bothered upgrading. Not necessarily because it's the best in the world, but I tried out a demo and it worked for extractable (mostly unscanned) PDFs so I kept it. I was surprised to find recently that it can convert some scanned PDFs into Word quite well too, but not others.
A friend uses one that might be Omnipage - it's definitely Omni-something anyway - and it handles scanned and otherwise intractable PDFs qu... See more I use Solid Converter PDF v4, have had it for 2 or 3 years and haven't bothered upgrading. Not necessarily because it's the best in the world, but I tried out a demo and it worked for extractable (mostly unscanned) PDFs so I kept it. I was surprised to find recently that it can convert some scanned PDFs into Word quite well too, but not others.
A friend uses one that might be Omnipage - it's definitely Omni-something anyway - and it handles scanned and otherwise intractable PDFs quite well, so if I ever need help to covert a particularly obstinate PDF he can usually zap it for me when my own converter fails.
However, my favourite approach is still to constantly remind clients to avoid sending me PDFs of any description whenever possible, and I find this nagging usually works in the end with direct clients. ▲ Collapse
| | | | DianeGM
Local time: 16:50
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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I voted other but actually use 2 - I think 'prefer' is a bit too strong.
Solid: for unscanned pdfs
Abbyy: for scanned pdfs
I've tried others but I don't think any give perfect results, especially for Greek text, and some particular fonts. I think Abbyy gives better results for Latin alphabet languages at least in the other languages I use (Dutch, English)
| | | | Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:50
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
| Any good free converters? | Feb 24, 2012 |
I do occasionally need to convert heathen PDFs to the true Microsoft religion...
Can anyone recommend a good freeware converter? I have never been able to find one.
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Like Mary, I cut & paste if I can, because the converters used by agencies often have trouble with the extra Danish vowels... æ, ø and å are either completely garbled, or printed more or less at random as a and e, and it DOES make a difference. Besides, who wants a TM full of spelling errors - Trados can't recognise the matches!
Some conversions do work, and occasionally I can run a spelling check or 'find and replace' if they are systematically garbled, but usually I accept th... See more Like Mary, I cut & paste if I can, because the converters used by agencies often have trouble with the extra Danish vowels... æ, ø and å are either completely garbled, or printed more or less at random as a and e, and it DOES make a difference. Besides, who wants a TM full of spelling errors - Trados can't recognise the matches!
Some conversions do work, and occasionally I can run a spelling check or 'find and replace' if they are systematically garbled, but usually I accept the fact that PDFs were not intended to be editable, and it is a waste of time trying.
Many of the PDFs I get are scanned, and not machine readable anyway.
[Edited at 2012-02-24 10:30 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | David Wright
Austria
Local time: 15:50
German to English
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Can't really see the point. If the text is in a convertible form (= "text available) I just let the reader convert it. If not, I translate as is and attempt to get the formatting as close as possible. My clients are aware of the problems of pdf files. (If it's full of tables then they can expect a higher bill!)
| | | | Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 15:50
English to French
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Christine Andersen wrote:
Many of the PDFs I get are scanned, and not machine readable anyway.
[Edited at 2012-02-24 10:30 GMT]
I extract when possible, used a converter for a while (even paid for it) but was asked too often to upgrade (and pay again of course).
Many of my files are scanned documents, often containing Khmer or Thai characters for proper names.
At the 2010 conference in Barcelona, a colleague told me about a miraculous programme, claiming it would cope with it all.
I am afraid I did not write down the name and forgot it since… Elizabeth (I think it was you), if you read this…
| | | | | Free : Wordfast Anywhere | Feb 24, 2012 |
Simon Bruni wrote:
I do occasionally need to convert heathen PDFs to the true Microsoft religion...
Can anyone recommend a good freeware converter? I have never been able to find one.
Hi Simon,
Wordfast Anywhere is even able to decipher "dead" PDFs.
Here Wordfast (which is also a free CAT tool) address :
http://www.freetm.com/
Here Dominique Pivard's excellent video explaining the process in details :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwYgFbWzpFQ
Have a nice day
Catherine
[Edited at 2012-02-24 11:20 GMT]
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Teja Prosenc
Slovenia
Local time: 15:50
German to Slovenian
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| the best free online converter | Feb 24, 2012 |
Definitively the best free online converter to create Word doc that is the easiest to edit. No waiting for email; just wait on the page — and it's free! ...
http://www.pdfonline.com/pdf-to-word-converter/
Teja
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:50
Spanish to English
| ABBYY PDF Transformer 2.0 | Feb 24, 2012 |
I use the above and have done for some years now. Having just searched for it in Google, I notice that it can now be downloaded for free. Most of the documents I need to have converted are scanned certificates of construction works. This tool does quite a good job despite signatures and stamps covering some words, and usually always gets the numbers right too, even when the font size is very small.
| | | | | as Tony M said... | Feb 24, 2012 |
Mary Worby wrote:
I've tried a couple of PDF converters but found nothing that produces satisfactory results. The resulting Word documents are full of text boxes, dodgy formatting and almost invariably impossible to translate in Trados as they are so full of tags. I have reached the stage now where my preferred method is simply to copy and paste the text out of the PDF file into a Word document. It is more time-consuming as there is post-editing required, but at least the results are clean.
If anyone can recommend a decent product that produces good, clean results, I'd be all ears.
I am just quoting Tony M (I hope he won't mind and thanks for sharing your knowledge Tony):
"Some of the more sophisticated programs will automatically handle multiple pages, etc., and can produce quite fair facsimiles of the original document; however, for subsequent CAT processing, I've found it's better to use the 'unformatted text' option, in order to avoid all sorts of hassles with the CAT tool not liking the 'tricks' the program uses to try and reproduce the formatting."
as you can find in the forum:
http://www.proz.com/forum/general_technical_issues/218818-translating_a_scanned_book_in_pdf_format.html
[Edited at 2012-02-24 12:39 GMT]
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