Processing PDF: How to Go from PDF to E-text to Audio

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Processing PDFHow to Go from PDF toE-text to
Audio

• Gaeir Dietrich
• DirectorHigh Tech Center Training Unitof the
  California Community CollegesFoothill Community
  College District

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PDF from Publishers

• Portable document format (PDF)
• Reads the same on any computer
• Looks like the book
• Smaller than TIFFs
• Contains all the text
• Always check to make sure the book is the right
  one!
• Easy for publishers

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Requesting through ATN

• Access Text Network
• Now free for requesting files from ATN-member
  publishers
• Paid membership to exchange files
• www.accesstext.org
• Not all publishers
• But ATN does have the largest ones

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Other Resources at ATN

• Accessible Textbook Finder
• http//www.accesstext.org/atf.php
• Link to Publisher Lookup
• http//www.publisherlookup.org/
• Will have to contact non-ATN member publishers
  directly

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Using Publisher PDFs

• Sometimes students can use files directly
• Often files will need further processing for
  student use
• At the very least, large files may need to be
  broken into chapters

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PDF Strengths

• Good format for large print
• Cropping
• Fit to page on large pages
• Print sections on large pages (tiling)
• Adobe Reader has some nice features
• Change colors
• Reflow
• Limited voicing
• Works on both Mac and PC
• Easy for most publishers to create

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PDF Weaknesses

• Not always fully accessible
• Screen readers do not always like themeven when
  they are text-based
• Reading order can be problematic
• May be graphics (pictures of text)
• May have too much security

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As an Aside

• When faculty create PDFs
• The PDF always started as something elseusually
  a Word file
• Try to get the starting document if the student
  prefers audio
• Security concerns?
• Word files can be password protected
• Button gt Prepare gt Encrypt

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Types of PDF Documents

• Text-based
• Text can be selected
• Graphical
• Picture of text (i.e., a graphic)
• Text cannot be selected
• Use text-select tool to tell the difference
• Files may be locked

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Processing PDFs

• Adobe Acrobat Professional
• Check on College Buys for discount
• Good OCR program
• Abbyy FineReader
• Nuance OmniPage
• IF you are a Kurzweil campus, you will also need
  Kurzweil

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Adobe Tools

• Adobe Reader
• Free
• Useful for students who need minimalaccessibility
  features
• http//www.adobe.com/products/reader/
• Adobe Acrobat Professional
• Essential for alt media specialists
• Extract text, create accessible PDFs, enabled
  Adobe Reader features
• www.uscollegebuy.com Discounted Price

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Acrobat Reader

• Reads aloud
• But does not highlight or track
• Enlarges text
• Nice reflow feature
• Changes text/background colors
• Text highlighting, sticky notes, and comments
• Access for text-based PDFs

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Production Features in Reader

• Really designed for reading, not reformatting
• Export PDF
• Subscription service (about 20/year)
• Upload PDF file, service auto-converts to Word,
  download

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Process with Acrobat Pro

• Cropping
• Enlargement for printing
• Tiling
• Extracting/deleting pages
• Combining/inserting pages
• Text extraction
• Works best with text-based PDF
• Does have built-in OCR capability

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Customize Quick Tools

• Click on the gear
• View gt Show/hide gt Toolbar Items gt Quick Tools

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Quick Tools Menu
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Customize
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Please Note

• To enable single-key shortcuts
• Open Preferences dialog box Ctrl K
• Under General gt select Use Single-Key
  Accelerators To Access Tools (first checkbox
  under Basic Tools)

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Cropping

• Tools gt Pages gt Crop
• Shortcut C
• (Please note This shortcut brings up the
  mouse-driven cropping toolmust double click to
  open the dialog box!)

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Crop Tool
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Crop Toolbox
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Enlarging

• Choose paper size/printer
• File gt Print gt Sizeto Fit
• Shortcut Ctrl P (tab through)
• Tip Crop document before enlarging

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Print to Fit
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Tiling

• Choose paper size/printer
• File gt Print gt Poster gt Tile Scale and Overlap
• Shortcut Ctrl P (tab through)
• Tip Crop document before tiling

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Enlarge with Tiling
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Extracting Pages

• Tools gt Pages gt Extract
• Delete Shortcut Ctrl Shift D
• Extract Pages Shortcut Alt V T P (opens
  Pages pane F6 focuses in pane and can arrow down)

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Extraction Tool
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Tips for Extracting Chapters

• Crop on complete file before extracting
• Work on a copy!!!!!
• Extract from end toward front!
• Use table of contents to help
• Place focus on first page of chapter to extract
  (beginning with last)

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Starting from the Back
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Combining

• File gt Pages gt Insert
• OR
• Create gt Combine files

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Inserting Pages
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Combining Pages
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Auto Extracting Text

• File gt Save As gt MS Word
• Retains styles and paragraphs
• File gt Save As gt More options
• Text (Accessible)
• Lose styles, places hard returns at end of line
• Text (Plain)
• Lose styles, keeps paragraphs
• Shortcut Alt F A

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Save As Options
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Better Text Extraction

• OCR programs analyze text and structure
• Acrobat Pro has built-in OCR, but other programs
  provide more control
• Can control which text to include

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More Control over Text

• For graphical PDFs
• Or
• To maintain more control over extracting text
  from text-based PDFs
• Use an OCR program!

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Processing Graphical PDFs

• Must run optical character recognition (OCR)
• Computers cannot read pictures
• OCR programs recognize the characters in the
  picture
• How you process the file depends on the end
  format the student wants!

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Want to Stay in PDF?

• Sometimes students do want a text-based PDF
• Can OCR in Adobe Pro
• Toolsgt Recognize Text

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Under Tools
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Want Text Out

• OmniPage or FineReader
• FineReader generally easier to learn
• Save to Word or HTML or Text based on student
  preference
• Use virtual printer with Kurzweil
• Create KESI files
• RW
• Save as Word

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Which One When?

• Want a Word file?
• Best choice is OmniPage or FineReader
• Want a Kurzweil document?
• Use Kurzweil to process the PDF
• For students to do themselves?
• Whichever program they prefer

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Why?

• OCR programs are designed to make extraction and
  editing easy
• Document readers (RW, Kurzweil, etc.) are
  designed to make reading easyNOT editing.

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NEVER!!!

• Do NOT run OCR with FineReader or OmniPagesave
  to PDFand then take into Kurzweil, RW, etc.
• Kurzweil, RW, WYNN will run their own OCR on the
  PDF!
• Wastes time, adds error to do OCR twice

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OCR Programs

• Treat PDFs the same as a TIFF
• If you OCR scanned documents, use the same
  process
• Load image file
• Select zones
• Create templates as needed

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OCR Process Details

• Crop before loading into OCR engine
• Turn on multiple languages as needed
• If doing math, turn on Greek
• Only turn on the languages you need
• Edit in the OCR program
• Some OCR programs have font matching features
• Save to Word

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Captions and Such

• For students who want audio or who are using
  screen readers
• Separate the main body of the text and the
  ancillary text (captions, sidebars, footnotes)
• Create two documents 00 Chapter and 00A Chapter
• Allows the student to hear main text uninterrupted

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Two Doc Workflow

• Open PDF in OCR Program
• Analyze layout for entire document
• Save a copy
• On one copydelete all ancillary text
• Save to Word as 00 Chapter
• On other copydelete all main body text
• Save as 00A Chapter
• Keep page numbers in both documents!

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Once in Word

• Learn to use show hidden
• Ctrl Shift 8
• Beware of the optional hyphen
• Search and replace to delete
• Search for - replace with nothing
• Run spell check
• Use styles to structure files for braille program

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Converting Files
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Mobile Readers?

• Check formats that device can handle
• Some handle PDF and DOC, some do not
• All readers handle TXT
• Also called text, ASCII
• Can save from Word as plain text

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Magic Conversion Tool

• Calibre
• Converts to and from many formats
• Fairly intuitive
• Free!
• http//calibre-ebook.com/

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Another Conversion Tool

• TechAdapt
• http//www.techadapt.com/
• TechAdapt Accessible Media Center (TAMC)
• For converting NIMAS and DAISY
• DAISY to
• RTF
• HTML

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File Transfer

• Can use DropBox or Box to transfer files for most
  readers
• Kindle and iPad can often use e-mail

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Resource Info

• Gaeir Dietrich
• gdietrich_at_htctu.net
• 408-996-6047
• www.htctu.net
• Alt media listserv
• Manuals online