Beta version of PDF import extension for OpenOffice.org is now available online. Fully functional version, special features like importing layout of LaTeX PDF or import of complex vector graphics, will appear later. However even the preliminary version of this extension allows to open and edit PDF documents up to version 1.4. Files with restricted permissions are not yet supported.
The extension is available at OpenOffice.org extension repository. OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta or later is needed in order to run the PDF import tool. The extension can be installed via the extension manager in the tools menu of OpenOffice.org. In the extension repository you’ll find versions for Linux, Windows, MacOS X, Solaris x86, and Solaris Sparc, both for OpenOffice.org 3.0 and StarOffice 9.
PDF documents are imported in Draw and Impress to preserve the layout and to allow basic editing. It is possible to change parts of text, but PDF forms are not yet supported.
OpenOffice.org developers claim that next releases of the PDF import extension will focus mainly on edit capatibilities, and less on layout. This will allow to open and edit PDF documents using Writer. This is probably good idea. There are other tools which allow to split PDF documents, merge them or attach other files without changing the layout (Pdftk). Thus, I would like to use the OpenOffice PDF extension mainly to edit and copy some text, not bothering with the layout.
For what it’s worth, I just wasted about an hour trying to import a PDF file into Excel, and what was supremely frustrating about it was that the PDF probably *began* life as an Excel file (it had clearly delineated columns with text and numbers).
Excel’s Text to Columns conversion feature was worthless because from the clipboard the PDF columns were converted to spaces instead of to tabs or commas, so it was impossible to get Excel to maintain column integrity during conversion — every text element (one column was devoted to book titles) would end up with its own column.
Anyway, it would be very nice if OpenOffice.org’s PDF import plug-in could successfully handle a conversion of this kind into Calc.
Comment by Dick Hartzell — June 20, 2008 @ 10:02 pm