Convert PDF to text

onez

I want to automate the task of opening PDF files, copying the text, and pasting to Excel.
Is there a way in C# to automatically grab a pdf file and do this. By the way, using the Adobe Reader "Convert to text" doesn't keep text properly tabular formatted and that's why I copy the text.

Thanks.

6 Replies

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Leon D4y ago
Spire.PDF library supports converting PDF to Excel with formatting:

https://www.e-iceblue.com/Tutorials/Spire.PDF/Program-Guide/Conversion/Convert-PDF-to-Excel-in-C-VB.NET.html
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Marvin Reid4y ago
You can keep the integrity of the formatted data and convert to an Excel file using the DocumentConverter class. Here is some code which demonstrates this:
using (DocumentConverter documentConverter = new DocumentConverter())
{
   var input = @"C:\Input\input.pdf");
   var output = @"C:\Output\output.xls");
   var jobData = DocumentConverterJobs.CreateJobData(input, output, DocumentFormat.Xls);
   jobData.JobName = "Save to Excel";

   var documentWriter = new DocumentWriter();
   documentConverter.SetDocumentWriterInstance(documentWriter);

   var renderingEngine = new AnnWinFormsRenderingEngine();
   documentConverter.SetAnnRenderingEngineInstance(renderingEngine);

   var job = documentConverter.Jobs.CreateJob(jobData);
   documentConverter.Jobs.RunJob(job);
}
https://www.leadtools.com/help/sdk/v22/tutorials/dotnet-console-convert-files-with-the-document-converter.html
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Jitendra Shekhawat9y ago
https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Convert-PDF-file-to-Text-2115897c

https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/12445/Converting-PDF-to-Text-in-C

https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/14170/Extract-Text-from-PDF-in-C-NET
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Rahul Prasad9y ago
It's hard to keep the tabular format while extrating text from PDF to txt file. You may convert PDF to Word file to remain the original layout.

https://www.e-iceblue.com/Tutorials/Spire.PDF/Spire.PDF-Program-Guide/Conversion/How-to-convert-PDF-to-Doc-in-C-VB.NET.html
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Jony Green11y ago
You can try PDFLib tool, it's an open source library, can convert all pdf page contents to a plain text file, and there is a third party pdf to text converter http://www.xspdf.com/guide/pdf-text-extracting/ using c#.net, it can extract whole pdf page text easily.
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Mike Gold19y ago
I would look at iTextSharp to read the PDF file and use COM interoperability to bring the Text into Excel

-Mike G
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