I have a PDF form that needs to be altered and made writable. Is this possible in Xara Pro?
ron
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I have a PDF form that needs to be altered and made writable. Is this possible in Xara Pro?
ron
Hi Ron
I guess the answer to that is it depends on how the pdf was created.
If it imports into xara as text blocks you can retype it - if not, then it may import as vector shapes and you can 'remake' it - otherwise it will be a bitmap, and it's a question of putting white masks over on a new layer and retyping, often difficult to do seamlessly
Thats how I see it anyhow - I'm not really technical with file formats - just based on experience
Steve,
Thanks. That's what I thought. The documents were clearly scanned as it imports into Xara Pro as a bitmap.
So, in essence, the document would have to be recreated if it were to be done properly, yes?
ron
Best way if you want it to look good I think - that's what I'd do
You could do an OCR with Abby Finereader or something similar. If you don't have the software, just email the PDF and I see what I can do and send the result back. Should be a five minutes job. I would do this in MS Word with table and cells ... and create a PDF file from there.
There is a nice free application that I use for pdf forms that opens them and then lets you mark them up or type on them and then saves it as pdf with your changes. Very useful. When I open the pdf again with Adobe Reader the changes are all there.
It's called PDF-XChange Viewer and is available from pdfxviewer.com.
mg
Awsome!
Thanks for the link mg:D
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.Quote:
Originally Posted by gottwavo
gottawavo,
Thanks, I tried using that, but the document doesn't come out even close to what it should be. The text is all accurate, but the formatting is all screwed up.
Since it was scanned into Adobe, I think I'll just have to re-create the documents.
ron
i got a email flyer from the makers of Omnipage ( a OCR software company) they have a product that is supposed to do that also. If ya want, I can forward you the email...:)
Ron what version of word or open office have you got? as some you can import the PDF table in. If it was me that was doing it I would just copy straight it into word making your own table thats not going to take long so long as you know a bit about tables.
My lagging-edge Omnipage 14 plain vanilla (which Scansoft's brilliant marketing dept calls "Pro") does an excellent job of OCR and formatting on PDF forms. Below left, the OCR result in Msoft Word. Right, the original.
RonDuke, most OCR packages have options to preserve formatting - have you checked to see if that option is enabled?
Sure, I'll give it a try, thanks John.Quote:
Originally Posted by raynerj1
Albacore: "Ron what version of word or open office have you got? as some you can import the PDF table in. If it was me that was doing it I would just copy straight it into word making your own table thats not going to take long so long as you know a bit about tables."
I use Microsoft Word 2003 (11.8134.8132) SP2. I don't see an import option though. Under "Insert" I don't see anything that relates to your suggestion.
thanks,
ron
Man! That software is expensive!Quote:
Originally Posted by DGehman
ron
You must be thinking of Omnipage 16.
The time has passed, but last month, Serif offered Omnipage 14 Pro for $13 including shipping from the UK... note that in my post, I said "lagging edge Omnipage 14."
The cool thing is that aside from more direct PDF reading (one step less) and a passel of new features useless to me (PaperPort sucks), the recognition engine is 99% the same between 16 and 14.
EDIT: I see Serif is now offering OP 14 for $40 + S&H, http://www.serif.com/SerifExtra/Temp...ct/97/61/1.htm -- not $14, but not $500 either...
DGheman,
Does this software allow you to create fillable fields OR can it save the fillable fields when converting to pdf? I can't see in the web page whether or not it can do this.
ron
I forwarded the email to the email I last corresponded with you at. The ronsautoart one at juno...:)
For the price they quote, you are supposed to get omnipage 16, paperport 11, pdf create 4 and media Recover... The price isn't that bad at $99... but I think you are mainly interested in the PDF create 4. I think that retails for about $50...
Let me know if this helped any.
Hmm, I didn't follow up in detail...Quote:
Originally Posted by RonDuke
It turns out, when it came into Word 2002, the fields were Text Boxes. Most behaved OK, but for the smaller ones, I had to go into insert (overtype) mode, where the character you type takes the place of the character under the cursor... otherwise, the text box expanded and threw the layout off.
Also, while you can tab to the next text box, Word highlights the prompts (for example, "SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER:"), so I had to right-arrow, then begin typing. Otherwise the prompt would have evaporated.
Word 2002 doesn't have a built-in PDF save, so I use PDF995, which operates like a printer. You "print" to PDF995, but in the process, up comes a save dialog allowing you to place the resulting PDF in the folder of your choice.
I see by the printout that PDF995 doesn't capture the bottom border. For Massachusetts, I'd whip out my pen and draw a line, because who knows? a missing line where a state employee expects one could delay processing. And my screen capture snagged the + magnifying glass cursor in Adobe over my last name... gotta remember to turn off the "include cursor in capture" option. But that's only in the screen capture below, not in the PDF.
So, it ain't perfect. But at least I can fill it out such that anyone could read it... which would not be possible had I filled it out by hand.
EDIT:
While I was doing this, John was suggesting a separate utility. That might be the best option, if it allows you to edit the original PDF...
John and DGehman,
Thanks to both. John, I don't use that email anymore. My current one is linked to my profile.
I tried the PDFTypewriter demo and it seems to work well. It's $50.00. Pretty easy to use too. Think I might go with that one.
thanks,
ron
Probably the best thing. I have a recurring need for OCR and needed to update my previous package, Finereader Pro 6 (2002), which was good, but not nearly as good as OP 14 (2004) is turning out to be.
If you can open the original PDF in Xara (or a high-res bitmap of the form), you could just make a correction layer (white squares with texts/lines/objects on top of it) to change the field headings/whatever else you need changed. Lock that layer, and create a layer with texts and 'X's that will be changed or moved (i.e., 'yes' - 'no' check boxes, name fields, etc...). Then you could do all the editing in Xara if you wanted.
The other methods probably have more power to them in the long run, but I thought I'd mention the above possibility, as it would work without spending anything else (if you can open it in Xara, that is).