WOW! Now I can work with the text in a PDF!
The Adobe PDF (portable document format) file format is wonderful because it allows anyone who has (or can download) the free Adobe PDF reader to view any PDF document. It doesn't matter whether the document began in Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, Ventura Publisher, Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect. If it's now a PDF document, you can read it. But that's all. You can't do anything with the text and you might want to use the text on a website or make it part of another document. Even if you buy the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you still won't be able to extract the text easily. Instead, you'll get a line at a time.
Not any more.
Side note: Those of us who live in the United States like to think that we're the smartest and best people on the planet. That's not necessarily true, but we like to think it. If you're a chauvinist who truly believes that, please stop reading now. The rest of this review will only annoy or disturb you.
There's a lot of computer intelligence in Russia. If you doubt that, take a look at www.abbyy.com. The company is about to release an application called PDF Transformer that will allow users to extract text from PDFs in a way that the text can be edited easily. Depending on the complexity of the layout, you might even be able to retain that with the program.
When I heard from the company's PR person in the US that there was a product that would allow people to get to the text in a PDF, my response was "Tell me more!" And when I received a copy of the application, my first test was to convert a PDF (document created in Ventura Publisher) to a Microsoft Word document.
The process
 I started with this PDF (to see a larger view of this image or any of the others, just click the image) and opened Abbyy's PDF Transformer.
 |
The application's wizard interface makes the process easy enough, even if you don't know how a PDF works or what optical character recognition is. |
 |
In the next step, I told PDF Transformer that I wanted it to create a Word document ... |
 |
... and on the next panel I selected the Options button. |
 |
Because PDF Transformer is a European program, it assumes that the user might have a PDF document in some language other than English or that text on the page might be in more than a single language. |
 |
The penultimate step involves telling PDF Transformer whether you want to retain all formatting and layout (the most difficult option), just the formatting without the layout, or (the easiest option) to extract only the text. |
 |
PDF Transformer tells you where it will put the finished product and finishes the conversion. For my 2-page document, the process was complete in about 15 seconds. |
The results
Not perfect, but quite good.
 |
The tortured text in the banner completely confused PDF Transformer, but that wasn't unexpected. This is the Word document and most of the formatting has been retained. PDF Transformer wasn't able to make sense of the large first word, either. |
 |
The HTML version was less successful, but this isn't the kind of document that should be converted to HTML. |
Wow!
PDF Transformer can process PDF files from any source, including scanned PDFs and PDFs generated from within any application and allow the user to open the converted file in Word or Excel. It can also export HTML, and TXT formats. The user can run the application from the Start Menu or as a plug-in from Microsoft Word or Excel.
Company CEO Sergey Andreyev says users can use information from PDF files -- articles, contracts, manuals, brochures, and other types of data -- without having to retype and reformat the entire document from scratch. "PDF Transformer, unlike other PDF conversion utilities, is able to process both application-generated PDFs and scanned PDFs. Users who need to edit a PDF file shouldn't have to be concerned with how their file was created, or if it contains a text layer. It is an ideal application for repurposing information from PDF files such as those received via Internet download or as email attachments."
The results: WOW! My Ventura document, which included numerous features not available in Word, was converted to Word format, with graphics included. This is an application that will be a welcome addition to the computer of anyone who needs to work with PDF documents. As of late June, I don't have a price for the application or a definite release date -- but it's coming soon.
Abbyy Software House develops linguistic and artificial intelligence (AI) software providing a full line of OCR and text-processing programs and solutions. The company is headquartered in Moscow with offices in Ukraine, the US (California), the UK, and Germany.
Technology corner rating for Abbyy PDF Transformer |
 |
EIGHT CATS: For a 1.0 application, this is a strong contender. Those who need to extract text from PDF files will find this to be a useful addition to the toolbox and the $50 price is in line with other utility applications. |
| How the Technology Corner rating system works. |
For more information, see www.abbyy.com.
If you think you have a problem now,
just wait until we "fix" it.
Why do companies insist on breaking things that work well? Apple's Itunes player works reasonably well. Not well enough that I use it for everything. If Winamp could play Apple's "protected" file format, I'd probably use it for everything. Any files downloaded from the Apple store must be played with Itunes, though.
 With previous versions of the Itunes player, I could click any tune within a playlist and expect the program to play all of the tunes.
Or I could identify an album, artist, or genre and play all of the selections by clicking any one of the entries.
Starting with a recent update, clicking any tune plays just that one selection and then stops.
After tinkering with the application and searching desperately on Apple's less-than-useful support page, I finally figured out what the problem is.
Playing more than one tune from a playlist requires checking the box on the left of the line.
Let's think about this. When I place 300+ tunes in a "playlist" why wouldn't Apple assume that I'd like to "play" them? Clicking any one tune plays just that ONE tune. Previous versions of the player played all tunes in the playlist, which is the logical behavior.
Granted, I don't have to manually click each and every one of the 378 tunes on my "Rock Favorites" list if I want to include all of them. I can Ctrl-click to select all 378 tunes, but why would Apple add this unnecessary extra step?
If I want to play 100 of the 300 tunes in a playlist, I can click 100 of the tunes I want (click, click, click, click ....) but why wouldn't I just create another playlist? Clicking the boxes is temporary. If I decide I want to play a different set of 100 tunes next week, I lose the current set of 100 when I clear the check boxes and start over (click, click, click, click ....) Creating a second playlist would produce two permanent lists of 100 tunes so I could repeat either list without having to select which tunes (click, click, click, click ...) to play each time. But I'd still have Ctrl-click to select all tunes in each playlist.
In a word, D'oh! Whoever thought up this dumb idea needs to go back to interface school.
Apple's engineers haven't yet messed up the Ipod, though. When playlists are downloaded to an Ipod, they work as expected: Start the playlist with any song that's on the list and the Ipod will play all of the songs on the list. Just like the Itunes player used to work.
Nerdly News
San Jose Murky News reports legal in-flight cell phone calls
From the San Jose Mercury News:
In one of the first legal in-flight cell phone calls, Qualcomm Inc. chief executive Irwin Jacobs sat in the front row of coach and chatted with a telecom lobbyist from 25,000 feet.
Jacobs and a group of reporters were aboard an American Airlines jetliner Thursday that flew out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for a demonstration of Qualcomm's in-flight cellular technology.
The flight required special clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission. The FAA and the airlines ban in-flight cell calls for fear the signals could interfere with navigational equipment. The FCC is worried about them disrupting terrestrial cellular networks.
Reporters were given phones with code division multiple access, or CDMA technology, and a few minutes to make and receive calls. Qualcomm commercialized CDMA technology, a standard used by many top wireless carriers.
Connections from the plane were generally good, although some calls were dropped. Sound quality was about the same as a cell call on the ground, other than the loud background noise on the MD-80 jetliner.
Clearly, this was early stage airborne cell tech.
There was a delay of about one second in voice communications, like that encountered when using a satellite phone, which interfered with natural conversation. The delay was caused by technology that digitally transmits voice in data packets from the airplane to the ground.
Also, the caller could not hear the phone ringing on the other end, which caused at least one reporter to hang up while the person on the other end was shouting into the receiver.
Monte Ford, American's top technology official, said he called his wife, secretary and friends in Paris and Madrid. He said domestic connections were better than international.
Jacobs said San Diego-based Qualcomm would spend the next two years testing whether electronic signals interfere with the jetliner's avionics system. He said improvements in the technology would include shortening the one-second delay. Eventually, air travelers should be able to make calls and download movies with wireless devices aboard jetliners, he said.
A nonprofit aeronautics group, RTCA Inc., is working on guidelines for testing wireless devices aloft. RTCA did not immediately return calls for comment.
The cost of outfitting jetliners for in-flight cell calls would be "minimal," Ford said, but he wouldn't rule out the possibility of the airline charging passengers extra for the calls.
American has ripped seatback phones out of most of its planes. People found the phones expensive and inconvenient, Ford said. "They waited to get on the ground to make calls with their cell phones."
The seatback phones use FAA-approved technology that doesn't interfere with jet navigation systems. And they were expensive. Airlines generally charge about $4 a minute plus a $4 access charge.
Even before Thursday it was widely known that cell phones will sometimes work on jetliners. On Sept. 11, 2001, several passengers aboard hijacked airliners called loved ones.
Microsoft has been busy
During the week I spent not far from Microsoft, my notebook computer downloaded and installed several critical updates. At home, the desktop system did the same. If you haven't visited the Windows Update site for a while, now would be a good time to go. This week's updates included:
- Security Update for Windows XP (KB839645)
- Security Update for Windows XP (KB841873)
- Security Update for Windows XP (KB840315)
- Update for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 (KB842773)
- Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express 6 SP1 (KB823353)
KB839645
This update resolves a newly-discovered, publicly reported vulnerability. A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the Windows Shell launches applications.
If a user is logged on with administrative privileges, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system, including installing programs; viewing, changing, or deleting data; or creating new accounts with full privileges. However, significant user interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer privileges on the system would be at less risk than users who operate with administrative privileges.
Microsoft rated this as "important" for all users of Windows NT4 and above.
KB841873
This update resolves a newly-discovered, privately reported vulnerability. A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the Task Scheduler because of an unchecked buffer. The vulnerability is documented in the Vulnerability Details section of this bulletin.
If a user is logged on with administrative privileges, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system, including installing programs; viewing, changing, or deleting data; or creating new accounts with full privileges. However, user interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer privileges on the system would be at less risk than users who operate with administrative privileges.
Microsoft rated this as "critical" for any user of Windows Explorer 6 or for any user of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
KB840315
This update resolves two newly-discovered vulnerabilities. The HTML Help vulnerability was privately reported and the showHelp vulnerability is public. Each vulnerability is documented in this bulletin in its own Vulnerability Details section.
If a user is logged on with administrative privileges, an attacker who successfully exploited the most severe of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system, including installing programs; viewing, changing, or deleting data; or creating new accounts that have full privileges. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer privileges on the system would be at less risk than users who operate with administrative privileges.
Microsoft rates these as "critical" for all versions of Windows 98 and higher.
KB842773
This appears not to be a security issue, per se, but an update to the service Microsoft (and others) use to update software automatically with background downloads.
KB823353
This update resolves a public vulnerability. A denial of service vulnerability exists in Outlook Express because of a lack of robust verification for malformed e-mail headers. The vulnerability is documented in the Vulnerability Details section of this bulletin. This update also changes the default security settings for Outlook Express 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2). This change is documented in the Frequently Asked Questions related to this security update section of this bulletin.
If a user is running Outlook Express and receives a specially crafted e-mail message, Outlook Express would fail. If the preview pane is enabled, the user would have to manually remove the message, and then restart Outlook Express to resume functionality.
Microsoft rates the security threat as "moderate" for users of Outlook Express 6.
Let us know what you think about this program! Write to:
Bill Blinn --
(wtvn@blinn.com still works)
Joe Bradley -- |
