Acrobat 6 - Extracting text from 2-column PDF

[Martin_Cross@adobeforums.com]

I have Acrobat 6 and I wish to extract some text from an 11-page PDF which has a two-column layout. I have tried the "Save as" option, and it makes a right hash of the job, reading the two columns as one, but inserting a tab between them.

I do not wan to create a seperate file for each column, as this is a real pain in the nack and I have a few different files to work from.

I had a plugin called 'Jade' that used to work in Acrobat V.4 on PC, in which I could determine text flow 'zones' on each page, and then save the extracted text as a rtf, or a Word file, or what ever.

Can Acrobat 6 actually cope with this, or is another mac-based plugin available?

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

It probably depends on what application created the document, and whether (and how well) it was tagged so it could be read by Acrobat. I just exported a two column file from InDesign, and Acrobat 7 Professional did an excellent job of exporting the Microsoft Word, retaining all the formatting. (I tried doing this in in Acrobat 6 Professional, but it consistently crashed every time I tried; apparently some bug with Acro 6 and Mac OS X 10.3.9)