There are also a host of proprietary applications.ĭepending on your needs, there are other ways to import PDFs into. To import PDFs, open source alternatives include pdftohtml, Abiword, KWord, and Inkscape. Some of the work in is done by xpdf, a PDF viewer. did not pioneer PDF import-not even in the open source market. Future versions of the extension may take on other forms of PDF import, such as favoring text streams. Overall, this is a remarkable result for an early release. Superscript is just a smaller font positioned in higher text box. Hyperlinks are merely blue, underlined text without interaction. Each line of text is one or more text boxes. Then, there are the limitations of PDF import. For example, interactive PDF form elements (including a text input form and a button) were visibly mangled. It was only later after closer look that imperfections appeared. Doesn't it take more than a glance to identify which is the original? The text, layout, font faces, text colors, bold, italics, underline, and picture were well preserved.īelow are the original in Writer and the imported document in Draw. When the initial screen appeared with the results, I stared at it in disbelief. The import process takes a long time compared to opening an document because of the necessary guesswork caused by the limitations of PDF.įor a test, I exported ODF_text_reference_v1_1.odt from and imported it again. extensions cannot register file associations with the operating system (though you can set them up manually), but importing a PDF is as simple as clicking on File and then Open.

The extension installs as easily as any or Firefox extension. Because of the limitations of PDFs, these uses may not be completely painless. Keeping all that in mind, this extension still has many uses such as adding annotation, filling out forms, making minor edits, using a PDF as a picture, and reusing PDFs for which the original source is lost. This extension's current implementation favors layout, so it imports PDFs into Draw. Implementations may either favor editing or layout. To avoid disappointment, you must keep in mind creating a PDF is not a reversible process because of the limitations of PDF as a format. PDFs are designed for layout instead of for further editing, so when a word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation application exports to a PDF, the layout and document structure are lost. Now available for testing is the PDF import extension, which also includes hybrid PDF-ODF export.

Openoffice pdf import extension how to