How to Convert .PDF to Text

Converting .PDF files to plain text can be a lifesaver when you need to analyze or manipulate the content of these documents using quantitative techniques. In this article, we will explore a simple and efficient way to convert .PDF files to text.

Firstly, you will need to have a bash shell installed on your computer, as well as the `pdftotext` utility, which is part of the Poppler package. If you are using a Mac, you can find this package in the Homebrew repository. Once you have `pdftotext` installed, you can begin converting your .PDF files to text.

The first step is to create a folder called `pdfs` in your home directory, where you will store all your .PDF files. You can then navigate to this folder using the command `cd pdfs`.

Next, open a text editor and create a new file called `convertmyfiles.sh`. This file will contain the bash script that will convert your .PDF files to text.

The first line of the script should be `#!/bin/bash`, which specifies the interpreter that should be used to run the script. Below this line, you can add the following commands:

```bash

for file in *.pdf; do

pdftotext '$file' '${file%.*}.txt'

done

```

This script uses a for loop to iterate through all the .PDF files in the current directory, and then uses the `pdftotext` utility to convert each file to text. The output file will have the same name as the input file, but with a `.txt` extension instead of `.pdf`.

Once you have created the script, save it and make it executable by running the command `chmod +x convertmyfiles.sh`. You can then run the script by executing the command `./convertmyfiles.sh`.

This will convert all the .PDF files in the current directory to text files. The resulting text files will be in UTF-8 encoding, which is the recommended character encoding for text files.

Finally, you may need to tidy up the extracted text by removing any cruft such as headers, page numbers, etc. You can do this using a text editor or a programming language like Python.

In conclusion, converting .PDF files to text is a straightforward process that can be accomplished using the `pdftotext` utility and a bash script. By following these steps, you can easily convert your .PDF files to plain text and analyze them using quantitative techniques.

Convert .pdf to text