PDF irritation

[Jeff Needle]

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.

But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight text,
but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of the CD
set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.

Is there a way around this? Maybe a freeware PDF reader that gets around
the restriction?

Thanks.

 

[old jon]

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.

But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight text,
but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of the CD
set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.

Is there a way around this? Maybe a freeware PDF reader that gets around
the restriction?

Thanks.

Acrobat Reader 6 does it on my XP. ?.

 

[Le Loup]

Jeff Needle a écrit :

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.
But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight
text, but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of
the CD set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.
Is there a way around this?

asking the author or publisher ?

Cordialement,
Hervé LOTH

 

[battles1550]

I think that something else works like right mouse click on text /
click menu item - copy. Try highlighting and using the menu item copy
if present.

 

[Eric]

You're right, there is an encryption setting that turns off the copy
function in Acrobat.

There are programs that claim to crack this but I haven't seen any
freeware ones.

If you can't find any... there is a $10 one at
<http://www.software.ebandwagon.co.uk/RetrivePDF.html?src=ggl-27>

 

[Ian Jackson]

You're right, there is an encryption setting that turns off the copy
function in Acrobat.

There are programs that claim to crack this but I haven't seen any
freeware ones.

If you can't find any... there is a $10 one at
<http://www.software.ebandwagon.co.uk/RetrivePDF.html?src=ggl-27>

At an exchange rate of $1 to the £, that's expensive!
Ian.
--

 

[PDFrank]

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.

But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight
text, but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of
the CD set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.

Is there a way around this? Maybe a freeware PDF reader that gets
around the restriction?

Thanks.

Download the free Foxit PDF Editor. It doesn't seem to care if the PDF
is copy protected. Unless the program's been changed.

 

[Eric]

Foxit 1.3 respects the PDF security settings and won't let you copy
text.

 

[Sweet Andy]

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.

But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight text,
but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of the CD
set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.

Is there a way around this? Maybe a freeware PDF reader that gets around
the restriction?

Thanks.

I use Adobe 6 and if you highlight and right click the txt you want to copy,
you can select 'Copy to the clipboard' and the program will do it. Don't
believe any versions before 6 do it, though, so you may have to upgrade, but
then Adobe Reader is free.

I think finally Adobe realized how many people were pissed off at their lack
of a copy function and fixed it.

Enjoy

 

[Jeff Needle]

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.

But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight
text,
but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of the CD
set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.

Is there a way around this? Maybe a freeware PDF reader that gets
around
the restriction?

Thanks.

Acrobat Reader 6 does it on my XP. ?.
The problem, I think, is that when you create a PDF, I think you can make
it so that the person reading it cannot copy and paste. This is what they
must have done. I was looking for a way around that.

 

[Jeff Needle]

Jeff Needle a écrit :

asking the author or publisher ?

Cordialement,
Hervé LOTH

Yeah, that would be my next step, but I thought if I could find a definite
way around it, I could avoid problems in the future.

 

[Jeff Needle]

I think that something else works like right mouse click on text /
click menu item - copy. Try highlighting and using the menu item copy
if present.

Both the "copy" option on the File Menu and the "Copy to Clipboard"
options after a right click on the shaded text are grayed out, disabled.

 

[Jeff Needle]

You're right, there is an encryption setting that turns off the copy
function in Acrobat.

There are programs that claim to crack this but I haven't seen any
freeware ones.

If you can't find any... there is a $10 one at
<http://www.software.ebandwagon.co.uk/RetrivePDF.html?src=ggl-27>

Thanks -- it may be worth the investment.

 

[Jeff Needle]

Download the free Foxit PDF Editor. It doesn't seem to care if the PDF
is copy protected. Unless the program's been changed.

Alas, I got a message that it does care -- that the document is
protected. But I'm glad to have it anyway. It's really fast.

Thanks.

 

[Jeff Needle]

I use Adobe 6 and if you highlight and right click the txt you want to
copy,
you can select 'Copy to the clipboard' and the program will do it. Don't
believe any versions before 6 do it, though, so you may have to upgrade,
but
then Adobe Reader is free.

I think finally Adobe realized how many people were pissed off at their
lack
of a copy function and fixed it.

Enjoy

I am using 6.0, but the options are grayed out. The creator of the CD has
protected the text from being copied.

 

[nomail]

I'm a book reviewer. I received a book with a CD with the text of the
book enclosed, with the files in PDF format. Great stuff, I don't have
retype stuff I want to cite in the review.

But Adobe won't let me copy text to the clipboard. I can highlight text,
but that's it. Ctrl-c doesn't work. I'm guessing the creator of the CD
set it up so that copying and pasting is not allowed.

Is there a way around this? Maybe a freeware PDF reader that gets around
the restriction?

Thanks.

A bit messy, but you can do a screen copy and send the image file
to an OCR program.

GC

 

[Jeff Needle]

A bit messy, but you can do a screen copy and send the image file
to an OCR program.

GC

Indeed.

While searching the web for help, I found a weak but usable program that
converts PDF files to plain text. It was a mess--missing characters,
words running together, inability to convert more than one page at a time.

I did have a bit of a genius moment -- why not open the PDF in a good word
processor, and cut and paste it from there. I know some of them have PDF
conversion. I use WordPerfect 12. It doesn't seem to have an ability to
read a PDF file. I searched for a freeware word processor that would do
it, but to no avail.

Anyway, thanks for the thought.

 

[nomail]

Indeed.

While searching the web for help, I found a weak but usable program that
converts PDF files to plain text. It was a mess--missing characters,
words running together, inability to convert more than one page at a time.

I did have a bit of a genius moment -- why not open the PDF in a good word
processor, and cut and paste it from there. I know some of them have PDF
conversion. I use WordPerfect 12. It doesn't seem to have an ability to
read a PDF file. I searched for a freeware word processor that would do
it, but to no avail.

Anyway, thanks for the thought.

Another thought - Ghostscript / GSview will open pdf files and
has a 'text extract' function. I suspect that it would not be too
fussy over copy protection

GC

 

[[audiogalaxy]]

Foxit 1.3 respects the PDF security settings and won't let you copy
text.

and what about previous versions?

 

[Arne Anka]

I alt.comp.freeware, sa PDFrank utan att tänka först:

Download the free Foxit PDF Editor. It doesn't seem to care if the PDF
is copy protected. Unless the program's been changed.

With a pricetag of US$99 it's *not* free!

--
Arne Anka

Men det värsta är inte själva baksmällan,
den verkliga pärsen börjar när gårdagens
oundvikliga sanningar börjar rullas upp för en...

<http://starcruiser.dk/arne/>