There are a number of ways to convert a PDF file to a Rich Text file on a Mac, unfortunately none of them are really drop-dead simple. Adobe Acrobat Pro allows you to export text and images, unfortunately this function only comes with the high price-tag of Acrobat. One of the simplest ways is to open the PDF document in Preview, then copy and paste the text into TextEdit or Word. Hey, it works. Here’s a easier way to do it, using an Automator application that supports drag and drop for PDF to Rich Text conversion. Simply drag and drop your PDF file onto the PDF to Text applicaiton and your text will be exported as a Rich Text file, text formatting intact.
Download PDF to Automator Application
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JamesD on June 11th, 2009 at 1:16 pm says:
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
Vicki on April 14th, 2010 at 8:04 pm says:
intel only? It’s “not supported on this architecture”.
tario on October 21st, 2010 at 2:40 am says:
nothing is happening after dropping.. not as simple as it sounds.
osxupgrade on October 22nd, 2010 at 7:52 am says:
tario: I think you will need to make sure rosetta is installed.
Goliard on November 5th, 2010 at 11:36 pm says:
I agree. . .tried to create an ap w/the automator, and it gives me a blank document. No idea what “rosetta” is.
cnruby on June 3rd, 2011 at 5:41 am says:
Thanks for the useful tip
parabanger on June 16th, 2011 at 11:14 pm says:
Copy/pasting definitely doesnt work. Copied PDF pages are pictures not text. Pasting them into a word processor just results in an uneditable picture.
The instructions for using Automator’s Extract PDF Text need more detail. Since there are many expensive apps to do the conversion, I wouldnt be surprised if Automator could do it. But exactly how?
John Collett on August 1st, 2011 at 8:57 pm says:
Brilliant. Drag and drop worked perfectly, first time.
Felipe Barraza on October 13th, 2011 at 3:47 pm says:
works for me, and gave me the idea to edit the workflow and add more features
Mac on December 24th, 2011 at 12:41 am says:
Thanks for that terrifically useful tip. It works like a charm. I just converted over a few PDF files to text files in about 5 minutes. Outstanding!
ksinger on January 30th, 2012 at 11:35 am says:
Had mixed results with this. Some files moved perfectly to an rtf file that I could open with Word, my preferred application. Other text files lost their returns and came up as a single paragraph. Finally, graphics did not convert at all and some files were just garbage. Don’t know enough about Preview to understand why it works sometimes and other times not.
TKL on March 19th, 2012 at 9:59 pm says:
Fantastic! It works like a dream.
Raj- the Earth King on April 29th, 2012 at 2:30 pm says:
convert scanned PDF to word or text docs in Mac :-
convert scanned PDF to text or word on windows :-
works for both windows and mac users.
It is possible that a few scanned PDF’s cannot be converted via pdf to text automator app. I had the same problem converting my scanned PDF’s. But i did figure out a solution which is pretty easy. all you have to do is follow these steps and it will work 100%
1. upload the PDF file which you were unable to convert to Google docs
2. Sign in to google docs, select upload and chose files from the pop out menu
3. then chose the file you want to upload and click OK.
4. and then you should see a dialog box that says upload settings. Make sure you check the box that says “Convert text from PDF and image files to Google documents”.
5. the other 2 boxes should be checked by default, if not please check them.
6. then click ” start upload ”
7. Once the upload is done open your document, go to File-Download as-RTF/Text/PDF/Word etc.
problem solved.
*this might not work for a few PDF’s with high picture content*
I know You Wanna thank me now.!!
Ted Wiberg on May 14th, 2012 at 3:15 pm says:
Hi!
Greate function.
I got a question.
Is it possible to convert a pdf file that is several pages and get every page as a separat txt files?
And, is it possible to make output name to something else then the name of the pdf?