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converting pdf with footnotes into Word
Thread poster: simon tanner
simon tanner
simon tanner  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 14:55
Italian to English
+ ...
May 6, 2014

Hi everyone,

does anyone know if it's possible to convert a pdf full of footnotes (over 250, so I really don't want to have to reinsert them manually in the word file) into Word. Acrobat will convert the file into Word OK, but the footnotes just appear as normal text at the foot of the page, not as footnotes.

This is a problem I've tried and failed to resolve so many times, and I wondered if anybody has found THE ANSWER!

And, no, the customer has no way of... See more
Hi everyone,

does anyone know if it's possible to convert a pdf full of footnotes (over 250, so I really don't want to have to reinsert them manually in the word file) into Word. Acrobat will convert the file into Word OK, but the footnotes just appear as normal text at the foot of the page, not as footnotes.

This is a problem I've tried and failed to resolve so many times, and I wondered if anybody has found THE ANSWER!

And, no, the customer has no way of recvering the original Word file from which the PDF was created, unfortunately...

Thanks for any help. ▲ Collapse
 
TB CommuniCAT
TB CommuniCAT  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 08:55
English to French
PDF to Word May 6, 2014

Hi,

You may wish to input your document in your CAT tool and let it convert to Word. However, you may have to adjust the alignments a bit. Not all CAT tools convert 100%.
 
simon tanner
simon tanner  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 14:55
Italian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
converting via a CAT tool May 6, 2014

Thanks for the suggestion, TB Communicate; I've tried doing this in the past with MemoQ (unimpressive results), but I also have the lastest version of Trados, which I could try out. Any suggestions on "adjusting the alignments"? Past attempts have unfortinately not really solved the problem, producing a final word file with the usual problems (footnotes exported in the main body of the text)
 
TB CommuniCAT
TB CommuniCAT  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 08:55
English to French
Adjusting alignments May 6, 2014

Unfortunately, I have not found a method to properly adjust the alignments and end up spending hours on it. You can either discuss it with your client and charge extra for formating fee or ask if client has a graphic designer who wishes to take upon the task. In the latter case, you may have to adjust your fees
 
LEXpert
LEXpert  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:55
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
+ ...
Use a proper OCR tool May 6, 2014

Is the pdf file a relatively good/clean copy, or not scanned but generated directly? A professional OCR tool like ABBYY Finereader should do a reasonable job with footnotes, at least to the extent that fixing any wayward numbering in Word is trivial.
 


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converting pdf with footnotes into Word






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