[nabs-l] question about Jaws and PDFs

Sun Jan 24 20:10:58 UTC 2010

Thanks for sharing the information about the Pdf2Txt software,
Darrell! For those of you who want to convert pdf files to text format
within Adobe, the "Save as Text" option is under Files. For pdf files
generated from scanned images, however, the text conversion method
won't work; these documents must be read through Open Book or similar
OCR technology.

On 1/24/10, Rania <raniaismail04 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is it easier to use then Adoby? just asking because I don't like Adoby all
> that much.
> Rania,
> "For everyone who thought I couldn't do it.
> For everyone who thought I shouldn't do it.
> For everyone who said, 'It's impossible."
> See you at the finish line."
> ~Christopher Reeve
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Darrell Shandrow" <darrell.shandrow at gmail.com>
> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 9:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] question about Jaws and PDFs
>
>
>> Hello Rania,
>>
>> I assume you're asking about PDF2TXT? The documentation is below:
>>
>> Version 3.3
>> April 6, 2009
>> Copyright 2005 - 2009 by Jamal Mazrui
>> LGPL license
>> Contents
>> Description
>> Installation
>> Choosing PDF Source and TXT Target
>> Text Extraction Settings
>> Viewing Area
>> Toggling between a File and Folder List
>> Configuration Check Boxes
>> Action Buttons
>> URL Source,
>> Hot Keys
>> The Log File
>> Command Line Operation
>> File Association
>> Development Notes
>> Description
>>
>> PDF to TXT (also written PDF2TXT) is a free program for converting files
>> in
>> Portable Document Format (.pdf extension) to plain text(.txt extension).
>> The
>> program lets you convert multiple files in a single, batch operation,
>> either
>> from a GUI dialog or a console-mode command line. The resulting text files
>> can be read in almost any editing or viewing program. PDF2TXT, itself,
>> also
>> includes a plain text view for reading PDF files. The program should work
>> on
>> any version of Windows.
>>
>> Installation
>>
>> The installation program for PDF2TXT is called p2tsetup.exe. When
>> executed,
>> it prompts for an installation folder for the program. The default folder
>> is
>> c:\pdf2txt. Although this is not a standard location for programs on a
>> Windows computer, a benefit is fewer keystrokes to type whenever you
>> manually enter the path to a PDF file or folder. If you want a standard
>> installation folder, however, respond to the prompt by entering
>> C:\Program Files\PDF to Text
>> The installation process creates a program group for PDF2TXT on the
>> Windows
>> start menu, containing choices to launch PDF2TXT, read Documentation for
>> PDF2TXT, and uninstall PDF2TXT. Also created is a desktop shortcut with an
>> associated hot key, enabling PDF2TXT to be conveniently launched by
>> pressing
>> Control+Alt+Shift+P. Another shortcut is placed in the Send To folder so
>> that a PDF may be viewed in PDF2TXT via the context menu in Windows
>> Explorer.
>>
>>
>> Choosing PDF Source and TXT Target
>>
>> After PDF2TXT is installed, launching it activates a main dialog with
>> several capabilities and settings. First, it prompts you to select a PDF
>> source. This can be either a single PDF file or a folder containing
>> multiple
>> PDF files (another section explains how it can also be an Internet URL).
>> In
>> the initial edit box, you can type the full path to the file or folder
>> desired. Alternatively, you can tab to buttons that invoke different sub
>> dialogs depending on whether you want to choose a file or folder as the
>> PDF
>> source. (Yet another option, described later, is to pass the path to the
>> PDF
>> source as a parameter on the command line when pdf2txt.exe is launched.)
>> By default, the PDF source is the folder c:\pdf2TXT\pdf. Any source may be
>> chosen, however, and the program remembers the last one used.
>>
>> Similarly, an edit box and associated button let you specify the target
>> folder for converted files. These will have the same base name, but an
>> extension of .txt instead of .pdf. The default target folder is
>> c:\pdf2TXT\txt. Note that the PDF source may be either a file or folder,
>> but
>> the TXT target is always a folder.
>>
>>
>> Text Extraction Settings
>>
>> Two settings fundamentally affect how text is extracted from a PDF. If the
>> PDF requires a password to unlock its content, type it in the edit box
>> provided. If the PDF is an image format without textual characters --
>> e.g.,
>> the result of a scan -- mark the checkbox so that optical character
>> recognition (OCR) is performed instead of the usual techniques of
>> extracting
>> text. This OCR technique was originally posted at
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/pdf2ocr.zip
>> OCR is a much slower and more error-prone process, but it may be the best
>> option when the usual methods do not work. This technique uses Google
>> Tesseract, the best open source OCR available, which is not as good as
>> commercial OCR packages. Due to technical issues, there is not a simple
>> way
>> of aborting an OCR process that has already started. It is possible,
>> however, by launching another copy of PDF2TXT, which clears the deck
>> during
>> its startup phase.
>>
>> Another checkbox lets you additionally produce a .htm target file -- in
>> HTML
>> format. This uses a different conversion technique, originally posted at
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/pdf2htm.zip
>>
>> This may be worth trying if the .txt result is unsatisfactory. It may also
>> be useful for webmasters who want to post AN HTML alternative to a PDF.
>> The
>> conversion translates visual aspects of the PDF such as fonts, but not
>> structural elements such as headings, unfortunately. To further increase
>> conversion options, a different technique is also used for producing the
>> .txt file with this checkbox, using the PDFToText.exe utility that is also
>> seperately available at
>> http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/home.html
>>
>>
>> Viewing Area
>>
>> Within the main dialog, a read-only, multi-line edit control serves as a
>> viewing area between the source and target controls just discussed. This
>> scrollable view can show one of three kinds of information: (1) the text
>> of
>> a PDF, 2) a list of PDF files, or (3) the results of a batch conversion.
>> The
>> label for the viewing area changes to indicate the kind of information
>> being
>> shown: "View file," "View folder," or "View results."
>> You can navigate the viewing area with standard windows keystrokes, e.g.,
>> Control+Home or Control+End to go to the top or bottom of text. Control+F
>> lets you search forward for a string of characters, and Control+Shift+F
>> lets
>> you search backward. F3 searches for the same string again in the forward
>> direction, and Shift+F3 searches again backward. Control+G lets you go to
>> a
>> percent completion point through the file being viewed. Control+K sets a
>> bookmark for the file, Control+Shift+K clears it, and Alt+K goes to it.
>>
>> You can press Shift with arrow keys to select text or Control+A to select
>> all. Alternatively, you can press F8 to set the starting point of a
>> selection, navigate to the ending point desired, and then press Shift+F8
>> to
>> select the text between these points.
>>
>> Press Control+C to copy selected text to the clipboard. Alternatively,
>> press
>> Control+Shift+C, or Alt+F8, to copy and append to the clipboard, adding to
>> rather than replacing its existing text. A form feed or page break
>> character
>> (ANSI code 12) will separate each clip copied there. Control+F8 is a
>> shortcut that copies all text in the viewing area without having to select
>> it first, equivalent to Control+A followd by Control+C.
>>
>> If you invoke the Open button and choose a PDF from its sub dialog, the
>> text
>> of the PDF will be placed in the viewing area, and keyboard focus will go
>> there. If you invoke the Select button to choose a PDF folder instead of a
>> file, its list of PDFs will be shown. A status bar at the bottom of the
>> dialog indicates the current position in the viewing area.
>>
>>
>> Toggling between a File and Folder List
>>
>> The Look button behaves in a special way when the viewing area has focus.
>> If
>> you press Alt+L when in the viewing area, PDF2TXT will toggle between a
>> folder and file view. If viewing a folder, PDF2TXT will switch to a view
>> of
>> the file that was on the line containing the caret. If viewing a file,
>> PDF2TXT will switch to a view of the folder that contained the file. In
>> addition, PDF2TXT will automatically search for the name of the file last
>> viewed and place the caret just after it if found.
>> This feature lets you easily explore the PDFs in a folder, one after
>> another. Initially, You might display a list of files by pressing Alt+L
>> when
>> the PDF source is a folder. You can then arrow down through the list until
>> you find a PDF you want to view. At that point, press Alt+L to view the
>> file. When you want to continue exploring the folder list again, press
>> Alt+L
>> to return to it at the position of the file you last viewed.
>>
>>
>> Configuration Check Boxes
>>
>> Four check boxes let you configure PDF2TXT. The one labeled "Include
>> subfolders," will look for PDF files not only in the specified folder, but
>> in subfolders under it. For example, you could probably convert many PDF
>> files on your computer by checking this setting and specifying the c:\
>> root
>> folder as the PDF source! This setting is unchecked by default.
>> The check box labeled "Move PDF when done" will transfer a PDF to a
>> subfolder called "Done" after a successful conversion. This is a subfolder
>> of the PDF2TXT program folder, with a default location of c:\pdf2TXT\done.
>> The benefit of this check box is that PDF files are stored away for backup
>> after they have been converted to text. This setting is unchecked by
>> default.
>>
>> The checkbox labeled "Replace TXT if found" determines whether to skip a
>> conversion if a corresponding target file already exists. If you do not
>> check the setting to move source files when done, you may want to check
>> this
>> setting so that unnecessary time is not spent on repeatedly converting PDF
>> files left in the source folder, since they then will be skipped if
>> corresponding target files already exist. This setting is checked by
>> default.
>>
>> The Append check box determines whether a detailed conversion log file is
>> newly created each time a conversion is run. This setting is checked by
>> default so that previous information is not lost. A section below further
>> describes the log file.
>>
>>
>> Action Buttons
>>
>> The remaining controls of the main dialog are buttons that perform various
>> actions. The Convert button is the default: the one that will be activated
>> by pressing Enter on any control except another button. The viewing area
>> will show the results of a batch conversion. This information includes the
>> number of pages in each PDF converted. It also indicates when a conversion
>> was either not possible or was skipped because the target file already
>> existed and you chose not to replace files.
>> Press Escape if you need to abort a batch conversion of many files that is
>> taking too long! Note that this program is relatively quick, however,
>> compared to other available methods of converting PDF files to text.
>> Moreover, its batch mode feature lets you run conversions unattended.
>>
>> The source for a conversion is treated differently if the viewing area has
>> focus. If viewing a list of PDFs in a folder or on a web page, then
>> PDF2TXT
>> regards the source as the file name on the current line (the one
>> containing
>> the caret). Thus, you can cursor to a PDF of interest and press Enter to
>> convert it to text. If successfully converted, PDF2TXT assumes you may
>> also
>> want to examine its content in the viewing area, so a Look command is
>> automatically performed as well (see below). If there is a conversion
>> error,
>> however, PDF2TXT leaves the error message in the viewing area. If you have
>> been examining a list of PDFs and decide you want to convert them all
>> rather
>> than a single file, navigate to the top line of the viewing area that
>> lists
>> the number of PDFs in the list, and then press Enter.
>>
>> If the source edit box already specifies what you want to view, or a path
>> is
>> easy to type into it, then the Look button is quicker to use than the Open
>> or Select sub dialog. Activating the Look button takes the current source
>> specification and goes to a view of either the text of a source file or
>> the
>> list of a source folder, putting focus in the view area so you can read
>> the
>> information.
>>
>> The Defaults button restores the default configuration settings of
>> PDF2TXT.
>> You can use it to return to the initial folders and checkbox settings.
>>
>> The Explorer button lets you browse the source, target, or done folder
>> with
>> Windows Explorer. It allows you to examine files that either have been
>> converted or would not convert--thus needing other approaches to access
>> their content.
>>
>> The Quit button closes PDF2TXT. Alt+F4 does the same thing.
>>
>> The Help button displays this complete documentation in the default web
>> browser. For context-sensitive help on a particular control, press F1 when
>> it has focus. Hence, you can tab through the dialog and press F1 on each
>> control to learn how to use it.
>>
>>
>> URL Source,
>>
>> If you are connected to the Internet, you can specify a URL as a PDF
>> source
>> instead of a file or folder on your local computer. The URL can be the
>> complete download path to a PDF on the Internet. Alternatively, the URL
>> can
>> be the path to a web page containing one or more links to PDF files. You
>> can
>> use Internet Explorer to navigate to such a web page and then invoke the
>> "Grab URL" button to put its URL into the source edit box of PDF2TXT.
>> The Look button works with a URL source similarly to a local file or
>> folder.
>> For example, you can press Alt+L to view a list of PDFs on a web page. The
>> toggling feature, described above, is also supported, allowing you to
>> consecutively examine the PDFs linked to a web page. If you view a PDF on
>> the Internet, PDF2TXT will automatically download a copy to the PDF
>> subfolder of the program folder, e.g., to
>> c:\pdf2txt\pdf
>>
>> The Convert button also works with a URL source. Thus, you can easily
>> convert all PDFs on a web page with a single batch operation!
>>
>>
>> Hot Keys
>>
>> Almost all controls of PDF2TXT are directly usable with unique, mnemonic
>> Alt
>> key combinations based on the initial letter of the control's label. Thus,
>> as you become familiar with the controls, you can operate them more
>> quickly
>> with hot keys rather than navigating to them with the tab key or mouse.
>> For
>> example, press Alt+P to go to the edit box for typing a PDF source, or
>> Alt+S
>> to select a source folder from a tree view of your computer. Press Alt+L
>> to
>> look at a file or folder, or Alt+V to red what is already in the viewing
>> area. Press Alt+I to toggle the "Include subfolders" setting, or Alt+D to
>> restore all defaults. The text extraction settings in the second row of
>> controls use a letter corresponding to the second syllable or word, i.e.,
>> Alt+W for the Password edit box and Alt+F for the Image Format checkbox.
>>
>> The Log File
>>
>> The conversion log file is named log.txt and located in the Done subfolder
>> of the PDF2TXT program folder. It records information about each attempt
>> to
>> convert a PDF to TXT file. It indicates whether the conversion succeeded
>> (meaning any resulting text), and then lists many attributes of the PDF,
>> including security settings that could explain a failed conversion.
>> There is a choice to view the log file in the PDF2TXT program group off
>> the
>> Start Menu. You can also get to the file via the Explore button of the
>> PDF2TXT program, choosing the Done folder to navigate with Windows
>> Explorer.
>> Additionally, you can open the file in another application through its
>> direct path (default settings):
>> c:\pdf2txt\done\log.txt
>>
>> If the log file grows larger than you want, simply delete it or uncheck
>> the
>> setting that configures PDF2TXT to append to an existing log file. Each
>> use
>> of the Convert button would then generate a new log file. This information
>> is more detailed than the results placed in the viewing area.
>>
>>
>> Command Line Operation
>>
>> The pdf2txt.exe executable may be run with various command line
>> parameters.
>> The parameters can set values for controls in the main dialog. Parameters
>> can also cause PDF2TXT to run in an automatic, console mode--without a
>> dialog box or further user intervention involved.
>> When the .pdf extension is associated with the PDF2TXT program (explained
>> in
>> another section), Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer will open a PDF
>> file
>> by launching PDF2TXT with the name of the PDF passed as a parameter on the
>> command line. If PDF2TXT is launched with more than one command line
>> parameter, however, the program will assume you want to run it in console
>> rather than GUI mode. The syntax for parameters is described as follows.
>> If
>> a PDF source file, folder, or URL is specified, it must be the first
>> parameter. If a TXT target folder is specified, it must be the second
>> parameter. The source or target must be enclosed in quotes if its name
>> contains spaces.
>>
>> All parameters besides source and target names begin with a space and
>> forward slash (/), followed by the hot key letter in the dialog
>> corresponding to the setting affected. A trailing plus (+) sign in the
>> parameter indicates a status of On, and a minus (-) sign indicates Off.
>> The
>> plus sign can also be omitted to indicate On. Capitalization does not
>> matter. Here is a list of parameters:
>>
>> a = Automatic, console mode (use /a- to force GUI mode with multiple
>> parameters)
>> i = Include subfolders
>> m = Move PDF when done
>> r = Replace TXT if found
>> d = Default settings (no /d- is defined)
>> g = Grab URL as source from Internet Explorer (no /g- is defined)
>>
>> For example, to convert all files using default settings except for the
>> Move
>> setting, you could enter:
>> pdf2txt /d /m
>>
>> To use current settings except grab a URL as source, enter:
>> pdf2txt /a /g
>>
>> To convert files from a temporary folder to the current folder, enter:
>> pdf2txt "c:\temp files" .
>>
>> To do the same, but in GUI rather than console mode, enter:
>> pdf2txt "c:\temp files" . /a-
>>
>> For greater console mode convenience, another version of PDF2TXT, having
>> the
>> abbreviated name p2t.exe, is also available in the program folder. This
>> version only runs in console mode, whether zero, one, or more parameters
>> are
>> specified. It uses "standard output" to display conversion results. The
>> shorter executable name means less characters to type on the command line.
>> For example, to run a batch conversion in console mode using the current
>> settings of PDF2TXT, you could simply enter
>> p2t
>>
>> Like DOS commands generally, the above assumes that you have either made
>> c:\pdf2txt the current directory or included it in a PATH statement.
>>
>>
>> File Association
>>
>> The PDF2TXT group on the Start Menu contains shortcuts for changing what
>> program automatically opens a file with a .pdf extension in Windows
>> Explorer. If you decide that you like the interface of PDF2TXT enough to
>> make it the default program for PDF files, you can set the file
>> association
>> accordingly. Later, if you decide you want to return to the conventional
>> association, you can do that, too.
>> When the .pdf extension is associated with PDF2TXT, an application such as
>> Windows Explorer when opening a file, or Internet Explorer after
>> downloading
>> a file, will pass the name of the PDF as a command-line parameter to
>> pdf2txt.exe. When the program is launched in this way, it automatically
>> invokes the Look button, placing text of the PDF in the viewing area and
>> putting keyboard focus there.
>>
>>
>> Development Notes
>>
>> I welcome comments and suggestions on PDF to TXT. For the technically
>> curious, I developed it with the PowerBASIC programming language from
>> http://PowerBASIC.com
>> and a couple of third party libraries: EZGUI from
>> http://EZGUI.com
>> and QuickPDF from
>> http://QuickPDF.com
>> An alternate text extraction technique is tried if the first one fails,
>> using the GetText.exe utility that is also available seperately at
>> http://www.kryltech.com
>> The file GetText.txt in the PDF2TXT program folder contains the license
>> for
>> this utility.
>>
>> The OCR is done by incorporating the open source PDF2OCR package,
>> available
>> at
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/pdf2ocr.zip
>>
>> Some status messages are spoken with the JAWS, System Access, or
>> Window-Eyes
>> screen reader if currently active. These direct speech messages are
>> produced
>> with APIs via a component of the SayTools library, which is also available
>> seperately at
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/saysetup.exe
>>
>> The PowerBASIC code to PDF2TXT, itself (but not commercial libraries
>> used),
>> is open source under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), documented
>> at
>> http://gnu.org
>>
>> This Windows program is the successor to my first version of PDF2TXT,
>> developed several years ago as a DOS-based, command-line only utility.
>> Ideas
>> and feedbak from the discussion list
>> ProgrammingBlind at FreeLists.org
>> have aided the design and testing of PDF2TXT. The latest version is
>> available at the same address,
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/p2tsetup.exe
>>
>> You can download it with the Elevate Version hotkey, F11. This checks
>> whether a newer version is available, and offers to install it.
>>
>> Jamal Mazrui
>> jamal at EmpowermentZone.com
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf
>> Of Rania
>> Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 7:21 AM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] question about Jaws and PDFs
>>
>> I have never herd about this!
>> Can you give me more information?
>> Rania,
>> "For everyone who thought I couldn't do it.
>> For everyone who thought I shouldn't do it.
>> For everyone who said, 'It's impossible."
>> See you at the finish line."
>> ~Christopher Reeve
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Darrell Shandrow" <darrell.shandrow at gmail.com>
>> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 6:31 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] question about Jaws and PDFs
>>
>>
>>> Hello Rachel,
>>>
>>> In order to help you in the most effective way possible, let me start by
>>> asking you some questions. Don't worry if you can't answer them all. Just
>>> do
>>> your best and I'll guide you to the rest of the needed answers.
>>>
>>> What version of JAWS are you running? Do you have Adobe Reader on your
>>> computer? If so, which version? Do you have any scanning and reading
>>> products like Kurzweil K1000 or OpenBook installed on your computer? If
>>> so,
>>> what versions?
>>>
>>> There are a number of ways to read PDF documents. Some PDFs are fully
>>> accessible, many can be read with some difficulty and far too many remain
>>> completely out of our reach without a significant amount of expensive
>>> assistive technology.
>>>
>>> There is one free solution that can read many PDF documents. It is called
>>> PDF2TXT, and it has been developed by a blind computer programmer. Visit
>>> http://www.empowermentzone.com/p2tsetup.exe to install the program.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Darrell
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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