Although there are several tools out there that will compress PDF files you may want to take a look at Acrobat, especially if you are using it to create your PDF files.

Acrobat has a built-in option that allows you to compress PDF files so that you can save space and reduce the likelihood that an email will bounce because the attachment is too large.

Follow the instructions below to learn how to compress PDF files with Acrobat.

Software/Hardware used: Acrobat X running on Mac OS 10.6.

1. Click File on the Menu bar, then Save As… and click Reduced Size PDF… from the menu that appears.

The Reduce File Size window appears.

A. Choose which versions of Acrobat the new PDF file will be compatible with from the list.

For maximum compatibility you may want to choose an earlier Acrobat version like 6 or 7 which will ensure a lot of users will be able to view the PDF file.

However, when you use older versions of Acrobat, file reduction is limited so keep that in mind.

B. You can also reduce multiple PDF files by clicking the Apply to Multiple button. However if you only wish to reduce the opened PDF file proceed to step number two.

2. Click OK to save the PDF file in a reduced size.

3. You will be prompted to name and choose a location for the reduced PDF file. Once you’ve chosen a save location and named the file click Save.

Saving the file may take between a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the size of the PDF and your computer’s specifications.

The PDF file used for this guide was reduced from 127KB to about 70KB. You should see similar results when you compress your PDF files.

If you have any comments or questions please post them below.

This guide does not apply to Acrobat Reader because it only functions as a reader.

Software/Hardware used: Acrobat X running on Mac OS 10.6.

1. With the PDF you wish to save as a Word document open, click File > Save As > Microsoft Word > Word Document.

If you plan to share the Word document with someone who uses Word 97-2003, make sure to select Word 97-2003 Document from the list, otherwise Acrobat will save the file in the new .docx file format that is only compatible with newer versions of Word.

2. Name the file and choose a location to save it.

A. You have the option of specifying how the document is saved to a Word document. Click Settings to change these options.

3. When Save As DOCX Settings appear, make your selections and click OK. The default settings will get you the best results most of the time. If the document is in a language other than Acrobat’s native language, make sure to select it from the list by clicking Set Language.

4. When you are ready to save the document, click the Save button to begin the conversion.

Depending on the size of the document and your computer’s specifications, the new file can be ready in a couple of minutes. If you have any questions or need help converting PDF files to Word documents, please use the comments form below.

Software/Hardware used: Adobe Acrobat X running on Mac OS Snow Leopard. Instructions should apply to Windows version of Acrobat as well as previous versions of Acrobat.

1. Click Acrobat in the Menu bar.

2. Click Preferences from the list.

3. When the Preferences window opens, click Commenting in the Categories pane.

4. Check Print notes and pop-ups. Click OK to save the changes and close the Preferences window.

To disable the option repeat the steps above and uncheck Print notes and pop-ups.

Next time you print a document with Notes and pop-ups they will appear on the print. If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.

Note: The PDF files you wish to extract must have printing enabled for this to work. Also because we pass the print spool to a PDF the document will lose the ability to search etc. I am in no way shape or form encouraging anyone to use these copied PDF’s to violate copyright law. All I am showing you is how you can remove these ridiculous restrictions from an eBook you paid for so that you can use it on other devices like the iPad.

How This Works

Spool files exist to hold information that is on its way to a location on your computer, in this case your printer. Because a printer can only print one item at a time the computer creates a spool file that contains the information form the file you are printing. This spool file is slowly fed to the printer as it is printing. When you print an SPDF (secured PDF file) the spool file is unencrypted unlike the SPDF file so what we do is grab that spool file and print it to a PDF printer like Foxit so that we can convert the Spool file to a PDF file we can use. The resulting PDF file doesn’t have any of the restrictions associated with the original file.

Here’s a diagram to break it down for you.

We are able to extract the spool file because we print to a non-existent virtual printer. This allows us to extract the unencrypted PDF spool using SPLView. In this guide rather than create a fake printer we will simply empty the paper tray which forces Windows to store the spool file until the printer begins printing.

Step 1: Download and Install Applications

Before you proceed you will need several applications in order for this to work. All applications have been tested and can be removed after you hacked the PDF files.

Foxit (download) This application is used to print the spool file to an unrestricted PDF.

SPLView (download): This is used to open the spool files so that we can print it to the PDF printer.

Please download and install these applications before proceeding.

Step 2: Open the Secured PDF File and Print

1. Open the protected PDF and click on the Print button in the Acrobat window, not the browser.

Note: SPDF’s requiring authentication with the server will open within the browser window using the Acrobat viewer. If you use the browser’s print button you will not be able to extract the SPDF, you must use the print button from Acrobat.

IMPORTANT – Remember to remove all paper from the printer’s paper tray. This is necessary so that you can access the temporary spool file for the following steps.

2. Select the fake printer we created and click OK to print the SPDF. This will create the spool files necessary to extract the SPDF in the next set of steps.

Make sure that the print job was completely sent before proceeding to the next step.

Step 3: Open SPLView to Print the Spool File

Open the SPLView application.

Note: Spool files (.spl) are located in C:>Windows>System32>spool>PRINTERS.

3. Click on File in SPLView.

4. Click Job List… from the menu.

5. Select the Print Job you sent in Step 2 above.

6. Click on the Open Jobs button.

7. When the print job opens you will notice that it is the SPDF file you printed. Verify that the file is intact (images, text, and formatting match the original SPDF).

When you are ready click on File to open the menu.

8. Click Print from the menu.

9. When the Print dialog box opens choose Foxit PDF Printer from the printer list.

10. Click OK to print the file. Select a save location and save the file.

Step 4: Enjoy Your PDF

Voila! Your PDF file is now unsecured and without restrictions. Enjoy it on your iPad, offline, and wherever a PDF can be read.

If you run into any problems verify that you completed all of the steps above, alternately use the comments form below for assistance.

Via landofthefreeish.com

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the article.

Note: Acrobat Pro 9 was used for the screenshots below.

1. Click on the Search box and enter the word(s) you are searching.

A. You will notice that instead of displaying a list of search results, Acrobat will automatically highlight the words as they are found.

2. Use the Find Previous and Find Next arrow buttons to navigate through the search results on the page.

3. If you wish to view the search results in a list click on the small arrow next to the search box to open the menu.

4. Click on Open Full Acrobat Search from the list.

You will notice that a separate Search window will open.

5. Choose where you want to search. You can search the existing PDF or folder full of PDF’s.

6. Enter the search term.

7. Choose the search options (full text search):

• Whole words only
• Case-Sensitive
• Include Bookmarks
• Include Comments

8. When you are ready to begin searching the PDF click on the Search button.

A. You will find a summary of the Results in the Search window.

B. To locate a result on the PDF simply double-click on one of the results on the list.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the article.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the article.

Note: Word 2010 was used for the screenshots below.

1. Click on File to open the menu.

2. Click on Save & Send.

3. Click on Create PDF/XPS Document under File Types.

4. Click on the Create PDF/XPS button on the right pane.

5. When the Publish as PDF or XPS window opens you will have several options.

A. You can name the PDF in the File Name text box.

B. Make sure that *.PDF is the selected Save as type format.

C. You will have the option to preview the file once it has been converted from doc to PDF. You will also have the option of optimizing the PDF conversion for the online and printing or just for online.

D. Click on the Options button for additional PDF file options.

6. When you are ready to start the file conversion click on the Publish button.

The Options window allows you to specify the range of pages that are converted to PDF, the information included in the final PDF file and the ability to encrypt the file.

When conversion from doc to PDF is complete you will find the PDF file in the location you designated.

PDF to Word Converter Features

• Batch Conversion of multiple PDF files
• Convert, copy, and print restricted files
• Convert PDF’s with open password
• Convert entire PDF or selected pages
• Preserve original layouts
• Convert scanned PDF’s

The best part is that you can get a free copy of this great application by “liking” them on Facebook, so head on over to their Fan page and get yourself a free copy of PDF to Word Converter.

Note: I used AnyBizSoft 3.0 for this tutorial.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the application is fairly simple to use. Here’s an overview of the application window.

A. Add Files – By clicking on this button you will be able to add PDF files to the list.

B. Remove and Clear – If you are working with multiple files you can Remove them from the list individually or Clear the list entirely.

C. Listing of files that will be converted, the queue.

D. Output Setting – The application gives you the option of choosing the destination of the output files (converted Word documents).

E. Convert – When you are ready to convert the PDF files in queue click on the Convert button.

Convert a PDF to a Word Document

1. Click on the Add Files button.

2. Locate and select the files you wish to convert.

A. Click Open to add them to the list.

3. Specify whether the application should convert the entire document or specific pages. Pages can be specified as follows: 1, 3, 5, 7-10.

A. Click on the Browse button to specify a destination folder for converted files.

4. Select a destination folder and A. click OK.

5. When you are ready to proceed with the conversion, click on the Convert button.

The files will be converted one by one and the conversion status will be listed in the Status column.

6. When conversion is completed, click OK.

7. To view the converted files you have two options, you can click on the blue link in the Status column for individual files or the Open button to open the destination folder containing all the files.

You will find that the conversion results are phenomenal, in the example below there aren’t any noticeable differences between the original PDF and the converted Word document.

The how-to below will show you how to create a PDF document from a scanned document in Acrobat 9.

Note: I used Acrobat 9 for this tutorial.

1. Click on File.

2. Click on Create PDF.

3. Click on From Scanner.

4. Choose the document type. Choose the best one that describes the document/image you are scanning to ensure the best quality.

Scanning document/image.

Depending on the scanner/software you use this may vary.

5. If your scan contains more than one page, click on Scan more pages or Scan reverse sides. Otherwise click Scan is complete.

6. Click OK to proceed.

The document should appear in the Acrobat window.

7. To save the document as a PDF, click on File.

8. Click on Save As…

9. Name the file.

a. Click Save.

Now that you can scan PDF files make sure you learn how to search PDF files.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.

This article came about my experience with a copy protected PDF file that I was using for one of the cases assigned to me in the Business Modeling class I am attending. The case requires that I determine if a series of account balances match to expected cash flows. I am to use regression and other statistical tools to determine that, but before I can run my analysis I must first enter all of the data into a spreadsheet, easy I thought, until I found out that I could not copy the table with data because it was protected! Now imagine the amount of time that would be consumed entering 150 rows and 6 columns of data manually. I began thinking of ways to get around this protection and the bulb came on…OCR!

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, put simply OCR software recognizes text from an image, this technology is frequently used by scanners/copiers that can automatically scan a document into an editable Word document. So how does all this fit in? What we are going to do is take a screenshot of a page from the protected PDF document, we will then open that image in an OCR program who will then recognize the text and save it to an editable document that you can use.

In order to this you would need an OCR application available and of course Acrobat Reader to open the PDF. In my case I have Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, so I will be doing the OCR and this guide with the software. At the end of this article you will find a list of OCR software you can download for free. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them below.

Note: I used SnagIt to capture the screenshots and Acrobat Professional to read the image files.

***This guide is intended for PDF’s that disallow copying of data or printing only***

The example below demonstrates how to pull data from a table and add it to a spreadsheet in Excel

1. With the PDF open, center the screen so that you can clearly see the information you would like to capture, once you’ve done that hit your Print Screen button, to activate screen capture.

Drag and select the area you wish to capture. Save your capture to a local directory.

2. With Acrobat open, click on File > Create PDF > From File…

3. Browse and locate the screen capture from Step 1, click Open to open the file.

4. The image file you selected should now be open in Acrobat

5. Click on Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR…

6. Click OK in the Recognize Text dialog box.

Note: If you are having trouble recognizing the text, you can click on the Edit… button to set a higher resolution.

7. Once Acrobat (or your OCR package) is done performing text recognition, you should be able to select the data within the program, select (highlight) the information you wish to copy.

8. Once selected, click on Edit > Copy to copy the information to the clipboard.

9. Open Excel with a blank spreadsheet, click on the Paste button and select Paste, this will paste the information you copied from the PDF you created onto the spreadsheet.

10. When the data is pasted onto the spreadsheet you will most likely have to format the data so that it matches the format from the original file.

Click on the Paste option box that appears and select Use Text Import Wizard… from the drop-down menu.

11. For this particular set of data I chose Delimited (in other words spaces, commas, hyphens and other characters separate the data).

Click Next to proceed.

12. The data in this table is separated by Space (most of the time), add a check mark to the delimiter in your data set, click Next to proceed.

13. A majority of the time not all the data will always line up so you might want complete formatting once all the data is correctly aligned. Click Finish to exit the wizard.

14. As you can see the data did not line up perfectly, this is where Find and Replace comes in handy. Once you’ve aligned your data then you can format it and you’re done. You’ve successfully pulled data from a protected PDF file.

The steps below will summarize the use of this work around to copy a protected paragraph in a PDF into a Word document.

Before proceeding repeat Steps 1-6 Using a Paragraph Instead

15. Once you’ve selected the paragraph you wish to copy, click on Edit > Copy File to Clipboard

16. Open Word and create a new file, right-click on the blank document and click on Paste from the drop-down menu.

17. The text you copied should now be available to you in Word. You’ve successfully pulled a paragraph from a protected PDF file.

Free OCR Software

FreeOCR.net

Tesseract OCR

GOCR

I was struggling with this issue for quite some time and could not seem to resolve it. I was trying to install Adobe Acrobat Version 6 on my laptop and every time I attempted to install it I received the "Error 1606.Could not access network location…" First off I was not installing over the network, so the first thing that came to mind was a faulty disc. I contacted Adobe support and they sent me over to the Microsoft site stating it was an OS problem. After hours of trying the different "fixes" available I was ready to give up when I found a post by a frustrated Acrobat user in the Adobe forums. I tried his recommendation and it worked! I have posted this quick little guide that will help you bypass all of the supposed "fixes" online and lead you to the one that works.

Why this occurs…It turns out that when you uninstall/upgrade Office to a newer edition it keeps registry keys for those uninstalled/previous editions, during installation Adobe Acrobat for whatever reason checks these and somehow it generates this error. When you delete these unused registry keys you will be able to install Acrobat.

If you encounter the above error while installing Adobe Acrobat please follow the instructions directly below.

***Please note that this error can occur with other program installations, if this is your case scroll to the bottom of the page and try the Microsoft Fix first.***

FIX 1

1. Click Start > Run

2. In the Run Command box type regedit, hit OK

3. Please back up your registry using this guide: How to Backup Your Registry

Once you’ve backed up your registry continue below…

Before you proceed with this tutorial, please check which version of Office you have installed.

Office 2007 – Version 12

Office 2003 – Version 11

Office XP – Version 10

Office 2000 – Version 9

Office 97 – Version 8

4. Navigate to the following Key in your registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE

Microsoft

Office (If you get here and you see version 8 or 9 and you don’t have any Office products with that version number then proceed to the next step).

5. Right-click on the Keys (in my case it was 8.0 and 9.0) and click on Delete from the drop down. Confirm the delete.

6. Close the registry and restart your computer.

7. Install Acrobat.

If this didn’t work then try the following fixes

Fix 2 – Via Microsoft

Fix 3 – CNET Forums Discussion

Fix 4 – Kelly’s Korner

You may also use the list of fixes above to attempt to resolve installation issues encountered when installing; Microsoft Office, Java, Windows, AutoCAD, and other applications.

Sources Adobe Forums