Author Topic: Getting info from a PDF  (Read 10078 times)

dragonshaos

  • I am worth 100 points in GURPS...ladies
  • ***
  • Posts: 194
  • Amateur DM
    • View Profile
    • Myspace
Getting info from a PDF
« on: April 19, 2009, 03:01:33 AM »
I am not the greatest person when it comes to computers.  I know more than the average person, which could be saying a lot, but I have a little problem.

Very simple, I want to take some info from the PDF of Dungeon magazine from the WotC website, Dragon magazine 364, the section on Kobolds.  All I want to know is how I can take the monster card, in it's format, and copy it onto something like a word document.  I also have the PDF downloaded if it makes a difference.  I know a website where I can manually input the info and it makes a monster card but that is too time costly.

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

Tadanori Oyama

  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *******
  • Posts: 3897
  • The Full Time GM
    • View Profile
    • Full Time GM
Re: Getting info from a PDF
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2009, 03:54:45 AM »
So, what do you want to do? I mean, you have a PDF, you can just print the page. Or select the text, paste it into a word document, and print that.

dragonshaos

  • I am worth 100 points in GURPS...ladies
  • ***
  • Posts: 194
  • Amateur DM
    • View Profile
    • Myspace
Re: Getting info from a PDF
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2009, 11:48:59 AM »
Ah, When I copy it it gets the text but not the format.  I would print it but I've been printing alot of things lately and don't want to waste the ink.  So, here's the problem.  There's a PDF, it has a monster in it, i the Monster card format like in MM.  I can only copy the text from it, so when i paste it it looks messy and out of order.  I want to be able to print that section and as I'm typing this i just remembered I can use a tool in the PDF to copy sections instead of text and paste the section in a document.  I feel dumb now.  Thanks!

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

Mason

  • I am worth 100 points in GURPS...ladies
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
  • he who laughs last, didn't get it.
    • View Profile
    • my myspace page
Re: Getting info from a PDF
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2009, 12:07:58 PM »
If it means that much to you then use windows excel for that. this way you can keep all that stuff looking the same as in the website. I haope you know how to use Excel because unfortunatly I have neither the time nor the patience to teach you to use excel over the computer. but Tadanori Oyama is right. just print the bitch.
"a Kenyan man once told me you can get use to anything when money is involved... he use to stick mice up his ass for twenty dollars a pop." -Spider Jerusalem

clockworkjoe

  • BUY MY BOOK
  • Administrator
  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *****
  • Posts: 6517
    • View Profile
    • BUY MY BOOK
Re: Getting info from a PDF
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2009, 01:58:27 PM »
Actually, I found a much easier way to do this. Get Foxit Reader and open the PDF in Foxit. There's a tool called Snapshot. Use it to highlight the monster state block. The snapshot tool will then create a bitmap of the highlighted section and put it in the clipboard. You can then paste the bitmap into Word.

Tadanori Oyama

  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *******
  • Posts: 3897
  • The Full Time GM
    • View Profile
    • Full Time GM
Re: Getting info from a PDF
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2009, 02:59:10 PM »
When I need to make a block of monster stats I copy them out of a PDF into a WordDoc. It's a little off balance but still readable when you place it into colume format.