On 11/30/2015 10:59 AM, Dave Barton wrote: > -------- Original Message -------- > From: Larry Evans > Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2015 09:02:51 -0600 > >> On 11/30/2015 03:29 AM, Dave Barton wrote: >>> -------- Original Message -------- >>> From: Sylvia Sánchez >>> Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2015 17:44:35 -0200 >>> >>>> Hi! >>>> Can you write your problem in English? >>>> Thanks! >>> Adam is not subscribed to this list and will not have seen your request. >>> A rough English translation of his message in Slovak is: >>> >>> "You could add to the OpenOffice PDF document reader which could be >>> edit, create and view PDF documents." >>> >>> In reply: >> [snip] >>> A better alternative might be to use a program or on-line service to >>> convert the PDF to an Microsoft file format. An internet search will >>> return links to a number of free and commercial PDF to Microsoft format >>> converter programs. I can recommend Zamzar http://www.zamzar.com/ an >>> on-line conversion service which offers direct PDF -> ODF conversion. >>> >> I just tried zamzar on an unfilled f1040.pdf from the irs >> and specified conversion to .odt. The result was viewed >> with libreoffice (version 4.2.8.2). Unfortunately, the conversion >> did not go well because there were many out-of-place lines >> and characters and even several 'Manual Column Break' >> values in blue ink, which, of course, appeared no where >> when the original .pdf was viewed with my Document Viewer >> application (https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince). >> >> In short, zamzar is no silver bullet :( >> >> -regards, >> Larry > No, I never claimed Zamzar was the perfect "Silver Bullet" solution to > Adam's request/suggestion. I only mentioned it, because I have used it > in the past to convert _SIMPLE_ PDF files to ODF and the results might > not have been 100% perfect, but acceptable for my requirements. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you said it was a silver bullet. I just wanted the OP to not get his hopes up :) > > You certainly picked the worst possible sample to test. I just ran that > horrendously complex form through the PDF to Word conversion of "Adobe > Acrobat Pro 11.0.12" and the output was almost unreadable in Word 2013 > and Word 2016. The same PDF to Word conversion through Zamzar was > marginally better, but still unusable.
[wine on]It's a shame that the irs chooses to use .pdf instead of something allowing editing :( [/wine off] > > I could have also mentioned the copy and paste method, but that would > not work for image based PDF files. > > In short, there is no silver bullet for PDF to word processor format > conversion. > > I have had somewhat better luck with this: https://www.idrsolutions.com/online-pdf-to-html5-converter/ I used the online converter to convert the f1040 for 2012 to html, and when viewed in the browser, it looked pretty close. The only problem was the font size for the entered data was not right (the SSN did not fill the space, and the numbers entered into the lines were too small. Maybe they've improved since 2013. In addition, you'd need an html editor instead of a word editor, but I assume that's not a big problem. I just used GWrite: https://code.google.com/p/gwrite/ to do simple editing on the html produced by the 2013 online converter, and it worked. -regards, Larry
