PDF format

[antarmike]

Just to show my complete ingorance of computers, how to I capture a manual in PDF format?

 

I.e- rather than starting with a word document and converting that to PDF, how do I scan a manual and end up with a PDF file?

Edited June 9, 2010 by antarmike

[Papav66]

I would still start with a Word doc, as its a good way of managing/holding the imported images then convert to pdf. There's no shortcut.

[montie]

Just to show my complete ingorance of computers, how to I capture a manual in PDF format?

 

I.e- rather than starting with a word document and converting that to PDF, how do I scan a manual and end up with a PDF file?

 

Hi Mike,

 

The scanner that I am using (a cheapie) has PDF included in the installation software. Adobe also has PDF downloads for free on the internet, normally only the reader, you could get lucky with a writer if you Google for it.

 

Good luck,

 

Monty.

[Sean N]

Morning Mike,

 

To convert to PDF you need PDF creation (as opposed to reading) software. There are two ways of doing it.

 

The first and easiest is to install software that acts as a printer, but instead of printing hard copy it makes a PDF instead. You create the PDF by selecting File > Print just as you would when printing normally, then selecting the PDF program instead of your normal printer. This works nicely, simply and the software's normally free. The disadvantage is that if you're scanning a manual, the scans are essentially pictures; the software doesn't know that those lines are actually words, so if you want a searchable PDF you won't get one. Try PDF Creator or Primo PDF.

 

Be careful - some free PDF printers say they do searchable PDFs, but in fact only do them from stuff that's already in the computer and searchable like Word documents - they won't do it from scans.

 

The second way is to install a more sophisticated PDF creator that also has OCR (optical character recognition). This can read the image and turn what it sees into words. This is great and the best way to do it, but the software is generally expensive; typically around £80 to £400. Typical examples are Abby Finereader, Adobe Acrobat Pro (not to be confused with the free Acrobat Reader).

 

If you come across something cheap or free that does OCR let me know!

 

A halfway house might be to create free PDFs and put bookmarks in them at the main chapter and section headings and points of interest, so you can jump straight to them, but I've not tried this with a free PDF program so I don't know which ones do it.

Edited June 10, 2010 by Sean N

[fesm_ndt]

most photocopy shops will copy direct to a disk in PDF

 

also as said above most scanners will do this also but would be a page at a time.

 

the fun part is unlocking pdf files

[Lauren Child]

Theres a good free PDF creator called PDFill. I use it a lot to "print" PDF files from word, as it shows up as a printer.

 

If you scan in documents to PDF they will likely be quite large sized as you scan them in as graphics rather than text, so it records every dot that makes up a letter rather than just that letter. You can do character recognition with some software to avoid that problem but thats not 100% reliable so you need to proof-read afterwards.

[mike65]

Have used both PDF995 (in the past) and CutePDF Writer to convert documents into PDF format.

CutePDF Writer creates searchable documents from word documents.

Also converts any document to PDF as it works as a "printer"

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

 

Also use PDFSAM which allows you to combine or split PDF files (very usefull)

http://www.pdfsam.org/?page_id=32

 

These are the free versions I use but they do a more advanced version if you want to pay for them.

 

Mike

[Stone]

Find someone with an expensive printer - our ones at work are great. Unbind the manual, pop the stack of paper in the scanning tray and hit the button, you end up with a searchable PDF. It even emails it to you! :nut:

 

Stone

[david1212]

As suggested by Mike65 CutePDF writer is the best of the free ones I have used that work like a printer.

 

There is an application, I can't recall the name now but can look at work, that will split and combine PDF files if that helps at all.

 

For a manual if more than a few pages as suggested by Stone if you can find someone with a scanner / all-in-one office machine that will directly output a PDF file that is your best option - even if it costs you a few pints !

[NickAbbott]

I have been doing just what you are after Mike, but there is no easy way (that I have found) to make the documents searchable, unless you pay for expensive software, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, which is what I'm now using.

 

One thing I will say though, is if you create non-searchable PDF files, i.e. scan the images and use one of the free PDF printers as already suggested in the thread, that non-searchable PDF document can then be taken, at a later date, and converted to be searchable. Again this is what I've been doing. Initially I've been scanning the pages, and putting them into a word document to mange the order and layout, and now that I have Adobe Acrobat Pro, I've been able to convert them to searchable documents, which is great!

 

If you are going to start scanning your manuals, any chance of scanning the early Matador manual you posted a few pages from a few weeks ago, as I'd love a copy of that one (as it's relevant to my lorry), and I doubt I will easily find a copy - I would also offer to scan it for you if you were willing to lend it to me

 

Nick