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A
Anonymous
January 31, 2020
Answered

I have a Word document that includes non-editable text, seems the creator saved them as an image

  • January 31, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1840 views

This document is about 20 pages in length, the cover sheet is editable text, the next 5 pages look like text but apparently have been converted to images and I can't edit them. The next several pages are graphics, the last few pages are similar to the five pages I mentioned earlier.  Struggling with Acrobat Pro DC to convert these pages to text so I can edit them, then save the document to Word 2016.  It appears that the creator of the document has disabled the ability to make any edits. Can't figure out how to scan these pages using OCR. Spent quite a bit of effort watching YouTubes and Acrobat FAQ's with no success.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated. 

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Correct answer Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Quote: <<In Word I did a Print to PDF so I thought I could use Acrobat Pro DC to accomplish this with the OCR feature, then save it as a docx file.>>

 

You're workflow is convoluted and is probably contributing to the problem. Here's your current process:

1) Open a Word document that's a combo of live text and graphical text.

2) Print to PDF, which deadens everything and now you've lost all of the live text you originally had.

3) OCR the PDF, which might work, but might not depending upon what was built into the print-to-pdf PDF.

4) Convert the PDF to DOCX.

 

First, never Print to PDF: it deadens everything in the file.

 

It appears that you want the graphical text portions to become live text, correct? If so, I think the best route is to OCR just those graphical pages, and then import them back into the original Word docx. Here's how I would proceed:

  1. Make a new Word document with just the graphical text pages. Leave the original document as is.
  2. Export this new Word docx to PDF:
    • Use the Acrobat PDF Maker plug-in, which is installed into Word when Acrobat Pro installed. It's in the Acrobat Ribbon at the top of Word's window. Or...
    • File / Save As (not Save As Adobe PDF) and select the PDF file type when prompted at the next screen. This uses Microsoft's built-in PDF converter. It's different from Adobe's but very competent and serviceable.
  3. Open this new PDF and run Acrobat's OCR utility.
    • Scan and OCR tool pane
    • Recognize Text
    • And follow the prompts from there.
  4. From the new PDF, select File / Export To / Word. Acrobat will now convert the PDF into MS Word file.
  5. Combine the new Word file (from the OCR) with your original live text docx and you should end up with everything all editable, live text.

 

Total time should be less than 5 minutes.

Hope this helps you help your friend,

 

 

 

2 replies

JR Boulay
Community Expert
JR BoulayCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 31, 2020

You don't need to re-scan these pages, just use Acrobat's OCR: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/how-to/scan-to-searchable-pdf.html?playlist=/services/playlist.helpx/products:SG_ACROBAT_PK~12/learn-path:get-started/set-header:ccx-designer/playlist:basictraining/en_us.json&ref=helpx.adobe.com

 

 

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
A
Anonymous
January 31, 2020

I had viewed that video twice before posting, perhaps I'm just not following the enchancement steps properly, I'll give it another go.  Using your 2nd link it responded that my PDF wasn't locked.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.comCorrect answer
Legend
January 31, 2020

Quote: <<In Word I did a Print to PDF so I thought I could use Acrobat Pro DC to accomplish this with the OCR feature, then save it as a docx file.>>

 

You're workflow is convoluted and is probably contributing to the problem. Here's your current process:

1) Open a Word document that's a combo of live text and graphical text.

2) Print to PDF, which deadens everything and now you've lost all of the live text you originally had.

3) OCR the PDF, which might work, but might not depending upon what was built into the print-to-pdf PDF.

4) Convert the PDF to DOCX.

 

First, never Print to PDF: it deadens everything in the file.

 

It appears that you want the graphical text portions to become live text, correct? If so, I think the best route is to OCR just those graphical pages, and then import them back into the original Word docx. Here's how I would proceed:

  1. Make a new Word document with just the graphical text pages. Leave the original document as is.
  2. Export this new Word docx to PDF:
    • Use the Acrobat PDF Maker plug-in, which is installed into Word when Acrobat Pro installed. It's in the Acrobat Ribbon at the top of Word's window. Or...
    • File / Save As (not Save As Adobe PDF) and select the PDF file type when prompted at the next screen. This uses Microsoft's built-in PDF converter. It's different from Adobe's but very competent and serviceable.
  3. Open this new PDF and run Acrobat's OCR utility.
    • Scan and OCR tool pane
    • Recognize Text
    • And follow the prompts from there.
  4. From the new PDF, select File / Export To / Word. Acrobat will now convert the PDF into MS Word file.
  5. Combine the new Word file (from the OCR) with your original live text docx and you should end up with everything all editable, live text.

 

Total time should be less than 5 minutes.

Hope this helps you help your friend,

 

 

 

|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bevi Chagnon &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Designer, Trainer, &amp; Technologist for Accessible Documents ||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PubCom |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classes &amp; Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs &amp; MS Office |
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Legend
    January 31, 2020

    I'm confused:

    You have a Word document that contains embedded graphical images of text (rather than live text).

    How did you get from Word to Acrobat?

     

    |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bevi Chagnon &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Designer, Trainer, &amp; Technologist for Accessible Documents ||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PubCom |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classes &amp; Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs &amp; MS Office |
    A
    Anonymous
    January 31, 2020

    Yes, I have a Word document that a friend needs me to fix the document so he can edit the test.  In Word I did a Print to PDF so I thought I could use Acrobat Pro DC to accomplish this with the OCR feature, then save it as a docx file.  I must be missing a step or two because I've not been able to succeed at what I'm trying to do. Though I'm a long time user of Adobe Reader, I'm a newbie at using Acrobat.

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