and even though this isn't a yelling thread, can I just say I HATE PDFs? REALLY, REALLY HATE.

Well, you're the admin, so I guess you can say whatever the fuck you care to.

but this crown - it's so very, very heavy. :(

Mine is made of paper and colored with crayon. I made it myself!

Um...what language are you copying? And what prog is it being moved to?

Maybe the 2nd prog doesn't have the script. ?? [do not mistake any commentary on this subject as coming from learnednessness]

And yes, I hate pdfs. They are in theory a good thing but in reality they are awkward drunken bulls break dancing in china shops.

hey, peacay! English language pdf to notepad or wordpad; I'm just trying to copy some text... I'm not "selecting all" with images or anything.

(using the "select text" tool in acrobat reader)

Maybe this program (pdf ripper) will help?

thanks, dhruva, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me (though how cool if it would!); one file I tried it on (pdf to html) came out blank except for one horizontal rule, and the other came out only as long string like this:

!"
#
$
% &
% '
$
$
$
$ (
$
)
*

Pdf to text also came out only symbols, and for pdf to rtf, it always tells me "invalid class string".

I would like to say that I am completely understanding of the problem and I have a total solution for you which I will now outline.

But I can't.

All the tech heads must be drunk or sleeping or bonking or a combination of all 3. Lucky bastards.

*applauds the sleeping bonkers, throws roses*

So, peacay, now that I have you here... You wouldn't happen to be a puzzle fan, would you?

Well I woz here.
Um puzzles? My guess would be likely....not. Sometimes. Depends. I like the crossword variety. I don't particularly like being abstractly frustrated. But I conversely like unravelling complexities. It's just that my crypticness or my lateral thinking sometimes doesn't mesh with the author of the puzzle. Hence I don't do the cryptic crossword.

Unless there's money or bonking at the end of course. In which case I'm your puzzleman. Home visits no problem. Unjimmyjammy all pretzelated conundrums, will travel.

taz, I'm no expert, but it appears to me that your pdf is using an obscure font that your word processing app doesn't have or doesn't recognize.

Do you use a font management application? I work on a Mac, and use Linotype's (free, excellent and powerful) Font Explorer X. When it looks at all my fonts, not only does it check them, it also separates them by category, and tells me what pdf fonts are on my hard drive.

I'm betting that you might benefit from changing the word doc font used to one of the common pdf fonts: Courier, Helvetica, or Times. pdf docs also use Symbol and Zapf dingbats. One of them could be corrupt.

It's hard to give font advice cross-platform, but ... first check for corrupted fonts, then try changing the font you use to one that pdfs use routinely.

Sorry if my best shot is wide of the mark. Bonking sounds like more fun that font fixery, btw.

Depending on the version of acrobat you have I think you can save the text out as RTF. And then manipulating the text from there is easier. Have you already tried that? (Should you have trouble of the dollar sign, square, odd figure variety at least that should also give clue to or confirm it as a font issue...) Also, it's possible that I've completely misunderstood where you are at in this at the moment. Good Luck.