Copy contents of a PDF file

[dinesh_devaraj]

Hi All,

I developed a AutoIt script which does the following

1. Open Adobe PDF Reader
2. Open a PDF file
3. Copy the contents to clipboard
4. Write the clipboard contents to text file

The script does this in a loop for mulitiple files. For testing I have three PDF files. The problem is the PDF files
are large hence the copy command Send("^c") takes some time (few secs). Hence when I run the script the
content of the PDF file are written to different text file.

Say for example the content of 1st PDF file is written in 2nd text file, content of the 2nd PDF file is written in
3rd text file and content of the 1st PDF file is written in the 3rd text file.

If I include a sleep command to pause the operation for few seconds the contents are written in the correct
output file. Why is it not working without sleep, what am I doing wrong?

expandcollapse popup

#include <Array.au3>
#include <FileConstants.au3>

Local $prPdfReader = Run("D:/Softwares/Adobe/Reader/Reader/AcroRd32.exe")
Local $hnPrw = WinWaitActive("Adobe Reader")
MainExec()
ProcessClose($prPdfReader)

Func MainExec()   
   If 0 == $CmdLine[0] Then
      ConsoleWrite("usage> autoit " & @ScriptName & " <folder1> [ <folder2>... <folder62>]" & @LF)
   EndIf
   For $I=1 To $CmdLine[0]
      EachFile($CmdLine[$I])
   Next
EndFunc

Func EachFile($folder)
   Local $hnFolder = FileFindFirstFile($folder & "\*")
   While 1
      $filename = FileFindNextFile($hnFolder)
      ; If there is no more file matching the search.
      If @error Then ExitLoop
         
      ; file name slice
      Local $fns = StringSplit($filename, ".")
      ; ConsoleWrite($fns[1] & " " & $fns[2] & @LF)
      If $fns[2] <> 'pdf' or $fns[2] <> 'PDF' Then
         ConsoleWrite("Ignore " & $filename & @LF)
         ContinueLoop
      EndIf
         
      ; fnwe - file name wihtout extension
      Local $fnwe = $fns[1]
      Local $sfPath = $folder & "\" & $filename
      Local $tfPath = $folder & "\" & $fnwe & ".txt"
      
      ConsoleWrite("Processing " & $filename & @LF)
      ConsoleWrite("   IP " & $sfPath & @LF)
      ConsoleWrite("   OP " & $tfPath & @LF)
      
      CopyText($filename, $sfPath, $tfPath)
   WEnd  
EndFunc

; $filename
; $sfPath - source file path
; $tfPath - target file path
Func CopyText($filename, $sfPath, $tfPath)
   
   Send("^o")
   WinWaitActive("Open")
   ControlFocus("Open", "", "[CALSS:Edit1]")
   ; ConsoleWrite($sfPath & @LF)
   Send($sfPath)
   Send("!o")
   
   ControlFocus($hnPrw, "", "[CLASS:AVL_AVView14]")
   Send("^a")
   Send("^c")

   ; Sleep(5000)
   ; Wait untill the copy is complete
   While 15 = MouseGetCursor()
      ;
   WEnd
   
   Local $szCbd = ClipGet() ; clip board data
   Local $fhTxt = FileOpen($tfPath, $FO_OVERWRITE + $FO_UNICODE)
   ; ConsoleWrite(StringLen($szCbd) & @LF)
   FileWrite($fhTxt, $szCbd)
   FileClose($fhtxt)
   ClipPut("")
   
   Send("^w")
   
EndFunc

 

[MattHiggs]

3 hours ago, dinesh_devaraj said:

Hi All,

I developed a AutoIt script which does the following

1. Open Adobe PDF Reader
2. Open a PDF file
3. Copy the contents to clipboard
4. Write the clipboard contents to text file

The script does this in a loop for mulitiple files. For testing I have three PDF files. The problem is the PDF files
are large hence the copy command Send("^c") takes some time (few secs). Hence when I run the script the
content of the PDF file are written to different text file.

Say for example the content of 1st PDF file is written in 2nd text file, content of the 2nd PDF file is written in
3rd text file and content of the 1st PDF file is written in the 3rd text file.

If I include a sleep command to pause the operation for few seconds the contents are written in the correct
output file. Why is it not working without sleep, what am I doing wrong?

expandcollapse popup

#include <Array.au3>
#include <FileConstants.au3>

Local $prPdfReader = Run("D:/Softwares/Adobe/Reader/Reader/AcroRd32.exe")
Local $hnPrw = WinWaitActive("Adobe Reader")
MainExec()
ProcessClose($prPdfReader)

Func MainExec()   
   If 0 == $CmdLine[0] Then
      ConsoleWrite("usage> autoit " & @ScriptName & " <folder1> [ <folder2>... <folder62>]" & @LF)
   EndIf
   For $I=1 To $CmdLine[0]
      EachFile($CmdLine[$I])
   Next
EndFunc

Func EachFile($folder)
   Local $hnFolder = FileFindFirstFile($folder & "\*")
   While 1
      $filename = FileFindNextFile($hnFolder)
      ; If there is no more file matching the search.
      If @error Then ExitLoop
         
      ; file name slice
      Local $fns = StringSplit($filename, ".")
      ; ConsoleWrite($fns[1] & " " & $fns[2] & @LF)
      If $fns[2] <> 'pdf' or $fns[2] <> 'PDF' Then
         ConsoleWrite("Ignore " & $filename & @LF)
         ContinueLoop
      EndIf
         
      ; fnwe - file name wihtout extension
      Local $fnwe = $fns[1]
      Local $sfPath = $folder & "\" & $filename
      Local $tfPath = $folder & "\" & $fnwe & ".txt"
      
      ConsoleWrite("Processing " & $filename & @LF)
      ConsoleWrite("   IP " & $sfPath & @LF)
      ConsoleWrite("   OP " & $tfPath & @LF)
      
      CopyText($filename, $sfPath, $tfPath)
   WEnd  
EndFunc

; $filename
; $sfPath - source file path
; $tfPath - target file path
Func CopyText($filename, $sfPath, $tfPath)
   
   Send("^o")
   WinWaitActive("Open")
   ControlFocus("Open", "", "[CALSS:Edit1]")
   ; ConsoleWrite($sfPath & @LF)
   Send($sfPath)
   Send("!o")
   
   ControlFocus($hnPrw, "", "[CLASS:AVL_AVView14]")
   Send("^a")
   Send("^c")

   ; Sleep(5000)
   ; Wait untill the copy is complete
   While 15 = MouseGetCursor()
      ;
   WEnd
   
   Local $szCbd = ClipGet() ; clip board data
   Local $fhTxt = FileOpen($tfPath, $FO_OVERWRITE + $FO_UNICODE)
   ; ConsoleWrite(StringLen($szCbd) & @LF)
   FileWrite($fhTxt, $szCbd)
   FileClose($fhtxt)
   ClipPut("")
   
   Send("^w")
   
EndFunc

 

I think you have answered your own question sir.  You have stated that the copy processes hangs for a second due to the size of the content you are copying.  When you use the Keyboard shortcuts to "Send" CTRL + C to copy, the script doesn't stop to wait for the copy operation to complete before continuing.  It waits the amount of time specified by "SendKeyDelay" in "AutoItSetOption".  In order to speed up the copy operation, I would disable any clipboard applications that you have running in the background (like clipboard helper that remembers last 10 clipboard copies), as I find that the presence of these kinds of applications are the cause of these copy hangs quite often.  If that doesn't help, I would try clearing your clipboard history as well (there are multiple ways you can do this).  Or, you can just stick with the version of the script you have confirmed to work.

[mLipok]

You can use PdfTK and mupdf ,

 

or QuickPDF UDF , but to use this UDF you should buy ActiveX component from Debenu.

 

[jguinch]

Also, convert a PDF to text with the XPDF library :

 

[jchd]

Writing the accessible text from a PDF file to text file is a function already included in Adobe Reader (free, standard and maintained); there is little to zero need to use any third-party tool.

[dinesh_devaraj]

36 minutes ago, jchd said:

Writing the accessible text from a PDF file to text file is a function already included in Adobe Reader (free, standard and maintained); there is little to zero need to use any third-party tool.

I tried 'Save As Other -> Text' option. The problem is the content of the file is my language "Tamil". When I tried 'Save As Other' Adobe PDF reader saves the files as UTF-8 or bytes hence all the content is lost. How can I solve this?

[jchd]

UTF8 is perfect and is no problem at all. Why do you want another encoding?

[mLipok]

37 minutes ago, jchd said:

Writing the accessible text from a PDF file to text file is a function already included in Adobe Reader (free, standard and maintained); there is little to zero need to use any third-party tool.

It depends on how fast and how many documents are to be processed.
In addition, if someone wants to get the text toogether with its coordinates (position of text on a PDF document), then I do not see any free solution, but only commercial solutions such as QuickPDF Library.

I may be wrong but just a few years ago I was looking for a completely free solution - but without success, so I finally decided on a commercial solution.

[dinesh_devaraj]

2 minutes ago, jchd said:

UTF8 is perfect and is no problem at all. Why do you want another encoding?

Even in my script you can observe that I have passed FO_UNICODE in file open. When I tried to open the file without FO_UNICODE all contents of my file is lost and I see only question marks when I open it in notepad.

[dinesh_devaraj]

Isn't there any other way to wait till the copy completes other that Sleep

[jchd]

@mLipok,

The OP never said he needs text positions.

@dinesh_devaraj,

But $FO_UNICODE isn't UTF8, it's UTF16-LE.

Have you tried $FO_UTF8 or $FO_UTF8_NOBOM ?

Edited October 20, 2016 by jchd