🚀 go-pugleaf

1. No, you can't do that.

2. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not just Reader) and SaveAs an .RTF format file. There's a free eval version of Acrobat available for download if you don't have it, and a number of third party PDF-to-RTF or Frame products available as well.

Once you have an RTF file, open it in Frame. I'd recommend saving each chapter out as a separate FM file and then incorporating all of them in an FM book.

Art

Art,

I opened it up in Frame, and the graphics and all the text is goofy looking and not correctly lined up as in the PDF, looks to be almost like frame took the file and shook it up and the pieces landed where they may. Is there something I am doing wrong?

The only thing you're doing wrong is assuming that PDF is some kind of 
editable exchange format. PDF is the end product of any program that can 
print, displaying or printing just about anything that can be 
represented on paper in two dimensions, not intended to be edited or 
otherwise taken apart. Your PDF doesn't know it was made in Framemaker, 
doesn't know anything about Frame tags, doesn't even really know what 
order the text flowed in back when it was Frame text.

Because you have a PDF, you may not have to retype the document. If you 
have Acrobat Pro, you can figure out *some* of the specs that were used 
to create it. Beyond that, your PDF isn't going to do you much good.

-- 
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

Jim,

It isn't clear from your message if you converted the file to RTF and opened that or you're still mucking around with the original PDF.

If you are still in the PDF... you can't really work with it. Save as RTF and go on.

If you created a RTF from the PDF and have opened that, things probably look odd because it's likely that whatever program was used to create the original didn't use the same settings as FM is attempting to use. Also, it's possible that you don't have the fonts that were originally used on your system.

To fix things, you probably still need to impose a layout and paragraph tags to set the correct fonts and formatting. If you have an existing FM template already set up to your standards, that would be the easiest way to go.

Art

In referring to the message above I have created the RTF and tried to import it through to Frame, however that is where the junk comes. So in order to impose a layout and paragraph tags to match the existing .rtf in frame, how would I go about doing this? I appreciate all the answers and additional help.

Hi, Jim:

I've seen rtf conversions that fit your description perfectly. It's not caused by FM. but rather it's caused by the way the original source file was constructed - the one that was converted into the PDF from which you exported as rtf. The way the PDF interpreted the rtf also is part of the problem.

I don't know if different FM releases convert from rtf with better or worse luck, but if you have earlier releases available, you could test the result.

Another possibility is opening the rtf in Word or OpenOffice, re-saving as rtf, and importing the result into FM.

Although rtf exports can retain format appearance and tag names, PDF only retains the appearance.

HTH

Regards,

Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

You could try running the PDF through a OCR into Word and then saving the result as an RTF. Sounds like a long way to go but it really isn't if the text is clear in the PDF. A good OCR retains at least some of the formatting. In FM you would have to re tag everything to get the format exactly correct.

 > You could try running the PDF through a OCR

I wouldn't recommend it. Even a good OCR program is still going to make 
some mistakes. Saving directly to RTF will make no mistakes.

 > A good OCR retains at least
 > some of the formatting.

So will RTF, except that RTF will have it right, and OCR will guess at 
things like typeface.

 > (I have done this on PDFs that were
 > made from Scanned Pages.)

And there's the only good reason to use OCR on a PDF.

-- 
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com