[Solved] Opening and editing pdf files?

[Bunny]

I have just installed the most up-to-date OpenOffice, primarily for its pdf editing functionality. But the very first pdf file I have opened (a six-page academic journal article, downloaded from a university website) looks strange, and strange in a way which doesn't go away when I manipulate the file. I would call this problem a formatting issue but this may be the wrong word.

Simply put, I use "Open" to browse and locate the pdf file I want to open; it loads and opens; but the words on the pages which open are not properly spaced (far too close together). When I open the same file in Adobe Reader all looks fine, so what am I doing wrong?

Incidentally I tried a simple edit (removing the first page) and then exporting to pdf. But when I opened that new file in Adobe Reader the tight formatting was still there, with the pages pretty unreadable. I have looked for help online but can't find where you have put the support for this problem.

[therabi]

Welcome to the forum.

The import of PDFs is very limited. The PDF is opened in Draw, since a PDF is a graphic and not a text file. If you need editing ability do a web search for free pdf editor and see what comes up.

HTH

[aqualung]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I don't think you are doing anything wrong, it's just that the "edit PDF" functionality of OpenOffice.org is extremely basic, certainly not suitable to editing a six-page paper while preserving the layout. For that, you would need to go back to editing the source in the original software and then save again to .PDF, or purchase Adobe Acrobat.

(Please note that this forum is an all-volunteer effort and that we have no affiliation with Oracle except for their help in hosting the server on which the forum runs. See the Survival Guide for more information.)

[TheGurkha]

The PDF editing extension is not meant to rival anything from Adobe - it is designed to allow you to correct a typo or some other minor edit.

(I would have preferred the developers to have spent the time they put into making this virtually pointless extension into fixing bugs in the core product instead.)

[RoryOF]

A PDF file is designed to be like the page of a book, unchangeable. If you need to edit it substantially, you must use tools designed for this purpose. The PDF editing on OpenOffice is intended to permit very minor changes, certainly not a complete re-edit.

[Bunny]

Thanks for your comments:-

i) Although I use what I called "Open" (as that is how the option is listed on the menu page) to open the pdf, when it has been opened it has the label "OpenOffice.org Draw" at the top so I may indeed have opened it correctly

ii) I understand your comments about editing (I read similar before installing) but it may be that I have expressed myself badly: the pdf file reads badly *as soon* as I open it (ie before I do anything to it) and that was the real point of my post. Should a pdf file get messed up in the simple act of being opened?

Incidentally OO takes a fair while to open the file: is this the sign of something sinister?

[aqualung]

Yes, Draw is the OOo component that handles opening a .pdf file for editing.

No, a .pdf file should not get messed up just as it opens. Yes, that's what happens in Draw, unfortunately.

Slowness in this case is not anything to worry about, it's just the way it is.

[Bunny]

No, a .pdf file should not get messed up just as it opens. Yes, that's what happens in Draw, unfortunately.

Is there a trick for putting the formatting right (ie returning the pages to looking like they should) or should I just give up with this particular six-page article?

[RoryOF]

The PDF file is not "messed up" permanently, it is badly displayed. If you open the same PDF in a proper PDF viewer (Adobe Reader 7 - 9) you will see it better displayed. There are a number of factors that can cause the bad display - the file may be too large/complex for the OOo add-in which opens it, or it may be lacking the fonts with which it was designed and OOo substitutes others as best it can. Because it is several pages of bitmap, Draw may have to do a lot of processing to open it, which takes time.

In reply to your latest post, just open it in Adobe 7, by using / File / Open in Adobe.

[Bunny]

just open it in Adobe 7, by using / File / Open in Adobe.

Apologies: we seem to be slightly at cross purposes: of course I know how to open it in Adobe (cf my original post). My puzzlement comes, not only from not seeing it look wrong when opened in OO, but finding that this "messed up" article also looks "messed up" when it is exported back to pdf and then opened again (ie it now looks bad opened in OO AND Adobe).

That's why I called it "messed up", as it seems to be a permanent change. Hence my question about whether there's a trick for taking the odg file and getting it looking ok (which is not a question about how to view a pdf file correctly). Is there something I've missed?

[therabi]

Do not tell me you exported the messed up file back to the same file name. If you did do not blame OOo, which is not a PDF viewer or editor, for your mistake. Can you get a new copy of the original file? At this point that is your best bet.

[Bunny]

Do not tell me you exported the messed up file back to the same file name.

No I didn't - nor is this thread about how to recover any kind of lost file (I've kept a backup). What I am trying to ask is whether there is some technique which I am unaware of (perhaps on the "export as pdf" menu, which seems to offer a lot of options, but perhaps not) which helps return the article to a better-looking state. I am curious, rather than desperate.

For the avoidance of doubt, the problem with the readability is that most spaces between words disappear, running the words together. Paragraph breaks are still there, but there are very few spaces between words or sentences.

[Hagar Delest]

Importing a PDF is not that easy I think since it's more a language for printers. If it was easy, then plenty of software would propose this feature. I guess that OOo has to decipher what a printer would understand and try to put that on a page as best as it could.

So no, I don't think a PDF import can be done with the quality of a PDF reader.

[aqualung]

Bunny--

There are no tricks or secret handshakes that I'm aware of that would enable Draw to do a better job of importing PDF.

You are aware that Adobe Reader 10.X (free) allows you to annotate PDF files with comments and to highlight text with "magic marker"?

[Bunny]

There are no tricks or secret handshakes that I'm aware of that would enable Draw to do a better job of importing PDF.

You are aware that Adobe Reader 10.X (free) allows you to annotate PDF files with comments and to highlight text with "magic marker"?

Oh well, I guess my goal of dropping one page from the article while leaving everything else looking the same is probably unachievable without buying Acrobat. Shame.

Thanks for the comments.

[RoryOF]

There are other PDF editors, some free/shareware, which offer better facilities than OpenOffice for this task. I can't recommend any, as I've never had to use them, but Google is your friend.

[Bunny]

There are other PDF editors, some free/shareware, which offer better facilities than OpenOffice for this task. I can't recommend any, as I've never had to use them, but Google is your friend.

Indeed - but that's how I came to OO in the first place, having been thoroughly baffled by a day of Google searching. Anyone got any recommendations drawn from personal experience?

[RGB]

... my goal of dropping one page from the article while leaving everything else looking the same...

You can use pdftk:
http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk
It's a command line tool, but there are some GUIs out there. I cannot recommend one for windows, though: last time I used that system was several years ago.

[jrkrideau]

There are no tricks or secret handshakes that I'm aware of that would enable Draw to do a better job of importing PDF.

You are aware that Adobe Reader 10.X (free) allows you to annotate PDF files with comments and to highlight text with "magic marker"?

Oh well, I guess my goal of dropping one page from the article while leaving everything else looking the same is probably unachievable without buying Acrobat. Shame.

Thanks for the comments.

It's been 3-4 years since I did something like this but I think you want something like Ghostview ? It or something similar will allow you to cut and paste pdf pages.

[TheGurkha]

Here's another angle on it.

Install PrimoPDF or similar, and then print the current PDF to the virtual PDF printer, and select which pages you want. You should end up with a PDF with the unwanted page(s) filtered out.

[Bunny]

Install PrimoPDF or similar, and then print the current PDF to the virtual PDF printer, and select which pages you want. You should end up with a PDF with the unwanted page(s) filtered out.

Brilliant Gurkha: this works like a dream! Many thanks everyone.

[Chloe Reed]

This problem that you having is very common, the PDF files are not fully converted into the openoffice yet, i had the same problem when i tried to open PDF files and i just gave up on that. I hope they will fix the problem soon...