PDF Files
You’re asking a difficult question. A PDF or Portable Document Format file allows you to view the file exactly as it was created complete with graphics and formatting. There are two types of PDF files - scanned files and application-generated.
Types of PDF Files
Application-generated PDF files can be copied and pasted into a Word doc pretty easily, providing that the author didn’t restrict copying. If no copying restrictions are in place, you can covert a paragraph in Adobe by opening the PDF and holding down the CTRL key while using the column select or text select tools. Select what you want to convert, copy the selection. Open a Word document and past in the selected text. You can save an entire PDF file by opening it and then saving it with the .doc extension on the file name.
Scanned files are much harder to convert and can’t be edited in PDF format. You can convert them to text using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. There are different programs available at different prices - some of the most popular are ABBYY PDF Transformer, Textbridge and Omnipage . These programs recognize text in the PDF file and convert it to a text files such as Word.
OCR Programs
You need an OCR program that will read and convert in Arabic. From researching in various Arab-language forums, I did come up with one program that promises to do it, but it isn’t cheap and the success isn’t guaranteed. The Sakhr Automatic Reader promises to preserve the document’s original layout while converting the Arabic language text to a text file. You can also convert Farsi, Javi, Pashto and Urdu for an additional cost. You must first be able to enable your Windows to accept Arabic as the default language. It costs about $1,400 and there is no free trial and it looks like there is no support. From browsing some of the forums, many users have questioned the product’s reliability and the developer’s ethics, so I’m pointing you to this option as information rather than as a recommendation.
Depending on the workload in the PDF files, you may do better retyping the text into a Word file and then using a language conversion program to translate the text if you need it in English or another language.
Kat Delong | November 20th, 2008
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