Free PDF Utilities

[Steve Wilson]

I have found a number of free utilities that may be of assistance to others.

Can't read DOC or DOCX files?
See Convert DOC to HTML
https://document.online-convert.com/convert-to-html

Want to annotate PDF information?
See Free PDF to HTML Comversion
https://www.pdftohtml.net/

Want to convert HTML to PDF?
See HTML to PDF Converter
https://html2pdf.com/

PDF file won't let you copy information?
See Remove restrictions in PDF files
https://online2pdf.com/remove-pdf-restrictions

The last one is a biggie. You found a PDF file that contains the information
you need, but it's too much to type by hand. You try to copy and paste it to
your own file, but it refuses to let you copy the info. What do you do now?

 

[Steve Wilson]

"Tim Williams" <tiwill@seventransistorlabs.com> wrote:

On a related note, I'm currently reading PDFs with either Chrome
(downloads that open in the browser) or SumatraPDF (FOSS reader; a bit
slower than the name brands, but seems simpler and more solid).

Consider PDFCreator for printing to PDF (not open, but the free version
works).

Tim

I use PDF-XChange. It can view, modify, and annotate PDF files, and do
OCR to convert pdf to text. It runs on XP and is free:

https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer

It has been replaced by PDF-XChange Editor, which can create, view, edit,
annotate, OCR and digitally sign PDF files. It runs on Win7 and has a free
version for download:

https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor

 

[Rick C]

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 5:16:28 PM UTC-4, Tim Williams wrote:

On a related note, I'm currently reading PDFs with either Chrome (downloads
that open in the browser) or SumatraPDF (FOSS reader; a bit slower than the
name brands, but seems simpler and more solid).

Consider PDFCreator for printing to PDF (not open, but the free version
works).

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs, LLC
Electrical Engineering Consultation and Design
Website: https://www.seventransistorlabs.com/

"Steve Wilson" <no@spam.com> wrote in message
news:XnsAAEBAEAFE5B70idtokenpost@144.76.35.198...
I have found a number of free utilities that may be of assistance to
others.

Can't read DOC or DOCX files?
See Convert DOC to HTML
https://document.online-convert.com/convert-to-html

Want to annotate PDF information?
See Free PDF to HTML Comversion
https://www.pdftohtml.net/

Want to convert HTML to PDF?
See HTML to PDF Converter
https://html2pdf.com/

PDF file won't let you copy information?
See Remove restrictions in PDF files
https://online2pdf.com/remove-pdf-restrictions

The last one is a biggie. You found a PDF file that contains the
information
you need, but it's too much to type by hand. You try to copy and paste it
to
your own file, but it refuses to let you copy the info. What do you do
now?

I use Sumatra because it is quick to load and isn't always beating me up about updating it. That's mostly because there isn't much work done on it these days I believe. Still, there are advantages to software being static.

There are some fairly simple features I'd love to see show up in Sumatra. One is just being able to double click and drag to select like the vast majority of applications can do.

--

Rick C.

- Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Tim Williams]

On a related note, I'm currently reading PDFs with either Chrome (downloads
that open in the browser) or SumatraPDF (FOSS reader; a bit slower than the
name brands, but seems simpler and more solid).

Consider PDFCreator for printing to PDF (not open, but the free version
works).

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs, LLC
Electrical Engineering Consultation and Design
Website: https://www.seventransistorlabs.com/

"Steve Wilson" <no@spam.com> wrote in message
news:XnsAAEBAEAFE5B70idtokenpost@144.76.35.198...

I have found a number of free utilities that may be of assistance to
others.

Can't read DOC or DOCX files?
See Convert DOC to HTML
https://document.online-convert.com/convert-to-html

Want to annotate PDF information?
See Free PDF to HTML Comversion
https://www.pdftohtml.net/

Want to convert HTML to PDF?
See HTML to PDF Converter
https://html2pdf.com/

PDF file won't let you copy information?
See Remove restrictions in PDF files
https://online2pdf.com/remove-pdf-restrictions

The last one is a biggie. You found a PDF file that contains the
information
you need, but it's too much to type by hand. You try to copy and paste it
to
your own file, but it refuses to let you copy the info. What do you do
now?

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 17 Oct 2019 16:17:03 -0500, "Tim Williams"
<tiwill@seventransistorlabs.com> wrote:

On a related note, I'm currently reading PDFs with either Chrome (downloads
that open in the browser) or SumatraPDF (FOSS reader; a bit slower than the
name brands, but seems simpler and more solid).

Consider PDFCreator for printing to PDF (not open, but the free version
works).

Tim

The free Foxit reader/printer works fine under Windows. It opens .ai
(Adobe Illustrator) files too, which we use to make artwork for labels
and front-panel overlays. I guess .ai is a flavor of PDF.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[mpm]

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 5:10:26 PM UTC-4, Steve Wilson wrote:
> I have found a number of free utilities that may be of assistance to others.

What's on my PDF Wish-List is a way to have the PDF include the DATE that it was printed either in the footer, or somewhere on the document.

I have the legit version of Adobe X, and it supports java and stamps with dynamic content, (and I can even get it to print TODAY's date), but then that date gets saved to the file. Forever.

For ISO 9001 purposes, I'd really like to be able to make PDF-fillable forms, but our ISO requires controlled documents to include a printed date, and then the paper forms become invalid 30 days later.

I can't believe there's not a way to do this?!
Of all the things PDF, somebody has to have devised an easy way to do this?

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 7:11:23 PM UTC-4, mpm wrote:

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 5:10:26 PM UTC-4, Steve Wilson wrote:
I have found a number of free utilities that may be of assistance to others.

What's on my PDF Wish-List is a way to have the PDF include the DATE that it was printed either in the footer, or somewhere on the document.

I have the legit version of Adobe X, and it supports java and stamps with dynamic content, (and I can even get it to print TODAY's date), but then that date gets saved to the file. Forever.

For ISO 9001 purposes, I'd really like to be able to make PDF-fillable forms, but our ISO requires controlled documents to include a printed date, and then the paper forms become invalid 30 days later.

I can't believe there's not a way to do this?!
Of all the things PDF, somebody has to have devised an easy way to do this?

Edit the file name to include the date. I do that all the time for receipts. You can find the date by hovering the mouse over the file name in a folder, in Windows. You can also select Details' under 'view' for the folder. It will give you dates and file sizes.

For dating forms, use a small font at the end of the document to identify the form, and add the date it was created.

 

[mpm]

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 8:36:12 PM UTC-4, Michael Terrell wrote:
> For dating forms, use a small font at the end of the document to identify the form, and add the date it was created.

The problem is that the form's print date governs, not the form's last revision date.

If it's a "controlled" document, it's only good for 30-days after it's printed. After that, ...technically... it can not be used, even if the original form hasn't changed.

So, our ISO consultant has us using MS Word (which, for all its faults) does support this capability. I just want to migrate certain ISO forms to PDF format because doing so would be easier to administer.

I even thought about doing this in the printer (i.e., have the printer take care of imaging the print date), but the problem is I can't control which printer, and ..... long story short: No.

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:16:28 AM UTC+11, Tim Williams wrote:

On a related note, I'm currently reading PDFs with either Chrome (downloads
that open in the browser) or SumatraPDF (FOSS reader; a bit slower than the
name brands, but seems simpler and more solid).

Consider PDFCreator for printing to PDF (not open, but the free version
works).

Libre Office - which is free - lets you export a file to the .pdf format.

Works for me. I use it to put together the NSW IEEE newsletter every couple of months, mostly from .doc and .docx contributions.

Microsoft does seem to deliberately mess up the .docx format from time to time to try and cripple things like Libre Office, but it hasn't been much of a problem recently.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Rick C]

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 8:48:25 PM UTC-4, mpm wrote:

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 8:36:12 PM UTC-4, Michael Terrell wrote:
For dating forms, use a small font at the end of the document to identify the form, and add the date it was created.

The problem is that the form's print date governs, not the form's last revision date.

If it's a "controlled" document, it's only good for 30-days after it's printed. After that, ...technically... it can not be used, even if the original form hasn't changed.

So, our ISO consultant has us using MS Word (which, for all its faults) does support this capability. I just want to migrate certain ISO forms to PDF format because doing so would be easier to administer.

I even thought about doing this in the printer (i.e., have the printer take care of imaging the print date), but the problem is I can't control which printer, and ..... long story short: No.

Why can't you control the printer? Isn't the printing of the document done by a document control department? It is the content of the form that needs to be controlled, not the paper it is printed on. If you are giving out the files freely and letting just anyone print them, then you are not controlling anything. If document control is printing the documents on paper they certainly can control which printer they use to print them.

I guess I'm not understanding how your company is doing this.

--

Rick C.

+ Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Tim Williams]

"mpm" <mpmillard@aol.com> wrote in message
news:8aaaa0b1-a657-4f4e-90d7-148454d78d47@googlegroups.com...

What's on my PDF Wish-List is a way to have the PDF include the DATE that
it was printed either in the footer, or somewhere on the document.

If nothing else, it would be easy enough to script up in LaTeX. Put that on
a "Send To" shortcut, or drag a file onto a desktop shortcut I guess, or,
Idunno, make a shell extension for it, or... And just do that before
printing. The output could even be a temp file that's printed immediately
then deleted.

Less bulk-ily, there's probably some command line PDF tools that could do
the same thing (composite an existing document with graphics piped in from
another tool) that can make that a one-liner, or at least in Linux if not in
Windows.

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs, LLC
Electrical Engineering Consultation and Design
Website: https://www.seventransistorlabs.com/

 

[Steve Wilson]

"Tim Williams" <tiwill@seventransistorlabs.com> wrote:

"mpm" <mpmillard@aol.com> wrote in message
news:8aaaa0b1-a657-4f4e-90d7-148454d78d47@googlegroups.com...
What's on my PDF Wish-List is a way to have the PDF include the DATE
that it was printed either in the footer, or somewhere on the document.

If nothing else, it would be easy enough to script up in LaTeX. Put
that on a "Send To" shortcut, or drag a file onto a desktop shortcut I
guess, or, Idunno, make a shell extension for it, or... And just do
that before printing. The output could even be a temp file that's
printed immediately then deleted.

Less bulk-ily, there's probably some command line PDF tools that could
do the same thing (composite an existing document with graphics piped in
from another tool) that can make that a one-liner, or at least in Linux
if not in Windows.

Tim

Use PDF-XChange or PDF-XChange Editor to annotate the file with whatever
information you want. You can remove the data later if needed.

https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer

https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor

 

[mpm]

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 11:52:57 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:

Why can't you control the printer? Isn't the printing of the document done by a document control department? It is the content of the form that needs to be controlled, not the paper it is printed on. If you are giving out the files freely and letting just anyone print them, then you are not controlling anything. If document control is printing the documents on paper they certainly can control which printer they use to print them.

I guess I'm not understanding how your company is doing this.

We have offices on (3) continents. I can't control the printers.
The documents sit on our corporate WAN/Cloud server, and for those documents that MUST be printed in order to use them, they are only valid for 30 days after the print date to ensure that they are always the correct version (a restriction built into our ISO-9001 QMS). Pretty standard stuff, actually.

For big $$, there are loads of SaaS solutions out there, but A) we're not big enough company to go that route, and B) I refuse to pay the asking price..

 

[mpm]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 1:29:15 AM UTC-4, Tim Williams wrote:

Less bulk-ily, there's probably some command line PDF tools that could do
the same thing (composite an existing document with graphics piped in from
another tool) that can make that a one-liner, or at least in Linux if not in
Windows.

Now there's a thought!!
Thanks, I'll look into that.
Seems like that might be "do-able" at reasonable effort. ?

 

[Rick C]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 4:52:16 AM UTC-4, mpm wrote:

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 11:52:57 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
Why can't you control the printer? Isn't the printing of the document done by a document control department? It is the content of the form that needs to be controlled, not the paper it is printed on. If you are giving out the files freely and letting just anyone print them, then you are not controlling anything. If document control is printing the documents on paper they certainly can control which printer they use to print them.

I guess I'm not understanding how your company is doing this.

We have offices on (3) continents. I can't control the printers.

You keep saying that, but you don't need to control the printers. You need to control the printing of the documents. If you don't do that it isn't document control, it's printer control.


> The documents sit on our corporate WAN/Cloud server, and for those documents that MUST be printed in order to use them, they are only valid for 30 days after the print date to ensure that they are always the correct version (a restriction built into our ISO-9001 QMS). Pretty standard stuff, actually.

I can't say anything about this idea being standard, but it is faulty. If the controlled document is printed the day before the document is changed it will then be out of date for 29 days before it is updated. That sounds like a failure to me.

I've never worked in document control, but my understanding of a controlled document is that the copies are all accounted for. When the document is updated, the copies are recalled and replaced. That's the way they did it at companies where I worked.

--

Rick C.

-- Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Robert Baer]

mpm wrote:

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 11:52:57 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
Why can't you control the printer? Isn't the printing of the document done by a document control department? It is the content of the form that needs to be controlled, not the paper it is printed on. If you are giving out the files freely and letting just anyone print them, then you are not controlling anything. If document control is printing the documents on paper they certainly can control which printer they use to print them.

I guess I'm not understanding how your company is doing this.

We have offices on (3) continents. I can't control the printers.
The documents sit on our corporate WAN/Cloud server, and for those documents that MUST be printed in order to use them, they are only valid for 30 days after the print date to ensure that they are always the correct version (a restriction built into our ISO-9001 QMS). Pretty standard stuff, actually.

* Sounds like confused/circular reasoning..
1) "must" be printed to use them = = stupid. if they molder
unprinted, how can you use them?
2) According to this "logic", they are not valid until printed.
3) By what magic do they become the correct version, valid or not?
Merely by printing?
4) Unprinted, invalid, but correct versions? How can anybody now
sight unseen?

For big $$, there are loads of SaaS solutions out there, but A) we're not big enough company to go that route, and B) I refuse to pay the asking price.

 

[Rick C]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 10:30:39 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

mpm wrote:
On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 11:52:57 PM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
Why can't you control the printer? Isn't the printing of the document done by a document control department? It is the content of the form that needs to be controlled, not the paper it is printed on. If you are giving out the files freely and letting just anyone print them, then you are not controlling anything. If document control is printing the documents on paper they certainly can control which printer they use to print them.

I guess I'm not understanding how your company is doing this.

We have offices on (3) continents. I can't control the printers.
The documents sit on our corporate WAN/Cloud server, and for those documents that MUST be printed in order to use them, they are only valid for 30 days after the print date to ensure that they are always the correct version (a restriction built into our ISO-9001 QMS). Pretty standard stuff, actually.
* Sounds like confused/circular reasoning..
1) "must" be printed to use them = = stupid. if they molder
unprinted, how can you use them?
2) According to this "logic", they are not valid until printed.
3) By what magic do they become the correct version, valid or not?
Merely by printing?
4) Unprinted, invalid, but correct versions? How can anybody now
sight unseen?

He is just saying there are some uses for the documents that require them to be printed. That happens a lot when you need the docs and you don't have a way to access the electronic version or if you need to make scribbles on them in a meeting or such.

Years ago when engineering was starting to go electronic I was setting up a small lab. I made sure we had a B sized printer so we could print readable schematics to use on the bench. We could have viewed them on the computer, but much less convenient.

--

Rick C.

-+ Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[mpm]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 10:30:39 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

3) By what magic do they become the correct version, valid or not?
Merely by printing?

They don't. (obviously).
But they do become INVALID after 30-days.

Another way to think about it (maybe?):
There's a built-in rule that if you're attempting to use a form that's more than 30-days old on its face (i.e., 30 days since it was PRINTED), then you must instead to go to the Server and download the form again (even if in fact, it is the exact same revision).

Yet another way to think about it: There is always a 30-day "grace period" if you use a printed form vs. downloading it from the Server. (The unstated rule here is that the document on the Server is guaranteed to ALWAYS be the current approved document. The server document can't be changed without a DCR#, and is read-only on the server to all except the ISO Document Coordinator, and few select others who know the rules for modifying such documents. Everyone else is read-only.) And therefore, if it is a type of document that requires printing, (i.e., for a signature), that paper document has a total life expectancy of 30 days.

Frankly, I see some problems with this.

But I didn't set this policy. I think there are better ways to handle it.
But of course, if the process changed, ISO would require everyone to be re-trained, so FORGET THAT! Never gonna happen.

Setting ISO aside for the moment -- Why can't PDF let you put a stamp on a document that includes the PRINT DATE? How difficult would that be?

Aside from the current discussion, having that capability would open up a lot of possibilities for PDF documents. Frankly, I would be surprised if there's not a way to do it -- I just don't know how.

Maybe there's a way to hijaak the dialog box on the password-protected PDF's, and use that to trigger a print date workaround? Sounds messy.

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2019-10-19, mpm <mpmillard@aol.com> wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 10:30:39 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
3) By what magic do they become the correct version, valid or not?
Merely by printing?

They don't. (obviously).
But they do become INVALID after 30-days.

Another way to think about it (maybe?):
There's a built-in rule that if you're attempting to use a form that's more than 30-days old on its face (i.e., 30 days since it was PRINTED), then you must instead to go to the Server and download the form again (even if in fact, it is the exact same revision).
Yet another way to think about it: There is always a 30-day "grace period" if you use a printed form vs. downloading it from the Server. (The unstated rule here is that the document on the Server is guaranteed to ALWAYS be the current approved document. The server document can't be changed without a DCR#, and is read-only on the server to all except the ISO Document Coordinator, and few select others who know the rules for modifying such documents. Everyone else is read-only.) And therefore, if it is a type of document that requires printing, (i.e., for a signature), that paper document has a total life expectancy of 30 days.

Frankly, I see some problems with this.

But I didn't set this policy. I think there are better ways to handle it.
But of course, if the process changed, ISO would require everyone to be re-trained, so FORGET THAT! Never gonna happen.

Setting ISO aside for the moment -- Why can't PDF let you put a stamp on a document that includes the PRINT DATE? How difficult would that be?

How do you intend to prevent people from downloading the automatically
dating file from your server and then having access to obsolete copies
(bearing current dates) forever?

> Aside from the current discussion, having that capability would open up a lot of possibilities for PDF documents.

It opens exactly as many as would having an editable field for the
date, so just do that. Automatic date-stamping on non-trusted machines
is security theatre.

> Frankly, I would be surprised if there's not a way to do it -- I just don't know how.

it's probably possible, but it doesn't seem wise.

> Maybe there's a way to hijaak the dialog box on the password-protected PDF's, and use that to trigger a print date workaround? Sounds messy.

That seems unlikely.

It's probably easier to kust keep the file on the server updated.



--
When I tried casting out nines I made a hash of it.

 

[gray_wolf]

On 10/17/2019 6:11 PM, mpm wrote:

On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 5:10:26 PM UTC-4, Steve Wilson wrote:
I have found a number of free utilities that may be of assistance to others.

What's on my PDF Wish-List is a way to have the PDF include the DATE that it was printed either in the footer, or somewhere on the document.

I have the legit version of Adobe X, and it supports java and stamps with dynamic content, (and I can even get it to print TODAY's date), but then that date gets saved to the file. Forever.

For ISO 9001 purposes, I'd really like to be able to make PDF-fillable forms, but our ISO requires controlled documents to include a printed date, and then the paper forms become invalid 30 days later.

I can't believe there's not a way to do this?!
Of all the things PDF, somebody has to have devised an easy way to do this?

Try opening with Photoshop and see what you can do. Solved all my problems