Counting words in a... PDF file?! Thread poster: Flavio Ferri-Benedetti
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Dear friends, I am quite desperate. My clients will only pay per source word... and the source is a PDF file. Only thing we've been able to get from this is an RTF file which nearly eliminates all words with special format (italics, bold...) - thus making the wordcount useless. Now, I need to know how to count source words in a trustworthy way or else I'll get mad Any advices? Th... See more Dear friends, I am quite desperate. My clients will only pay per source word... and the source is a PDF file. Only thing we've been able to get from this is an RTF file which nearly eliminates all words with special format (italics, bold...) - thus making the wordcount useless. Now, I need to know how to count source words in a trustworthy way or else I'll get mad Any advices? Thanks Flavio ▲ Collapse | | |
You can use finereader or other OCR program to scan the document, keep all the format, and give an accurate wordcount. Edwal | | |
PDFCount is a lovely little plug-in for Acrobat. You can try it out for free for 15 days (http://www.pdfcount.com/trial.html), it might be just what you need now without too much effort. HtH, Roberta | | |
PDFCount... :( | Apr 17, 2004 |
Roberta Anderson wrote: PDFCount is a lovely little plug-in for Acrobat. You can try it out for free for 15 days ( http://www.pdfcount.com/trial.html), it might be just what you need now without too much effort. HtH, Roberta Hi Roberta, I tried it, but it says that my PDF has "subset embedded fonts" - and then gives me the same wordcount as the corrupted RTF file. I am downloading FineReader (trial version), I hope it works... it's a huge program, argh! Flavio | |
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Trudy Peters United States Local time: 07:41 German to English + ... Have you asked the client? | Apr 17, 2004 |
Why don't you ask the client if they have a wordcount? They may have the file in another format or be otherwise able to provide a wordcount. How else would THEY know if your source count is accurate, unless they manually count the words? Just a thought. Trudy | | |
Ahmed Ismail Egypt Local time: 14:41 English to Arabic + ... It is the client's job | Apr 17, 2004 |
Mainly, it is the client's job.. They should find a away to do it, unless it is a lazy project manager who wants you to do his job. You have two options: If you or the client have Adobe Acrobat 5.0, convert the pdf file to rtf format...and then it is solved. - You can try Total Assistant..it is a very good tool for the word count.. | | |
Ahem... My client is the one who sent me the wordcount AND the RTF file, actually. I have contacted him, of course, but I am looking for a solution while waiting, so we save time. I am trying Fine Reader right now, I hope I understand how to count words... Flavio | | |
Further benefit of FineReading a pdf | Apr 17, 2004 |
Flavio Ferri Benedetti wrote: I am downloading FineReader (trial version), I hope it works... it's a huge program, argh! Cheer up! Time well spent! It might have dawned on you already, but here it is. Using FineReader you'll have a soft file you can translate using your favorite CAT, therefore making up for the time wasted downloading FineReader. As the Bard goes, Every cloud... | |
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FineReader worked! | Apr 17, 2004 |
Yahooooo! With FineReader I have been able to "read" all text blocks in my PDF file, copy and paste them in a Word file and count words! Whew, 9,383 against 8,640! Thank goodness I checked! Love, Flavio | | |
A great tool | Apr 18, 2004 |
Flavio Ferri Benedetti wrote: Yahooooo! With FineReader I have been able to "read" all text blocks in my PDF file, copy and paste them in a Word file and count words! Whew, 9,383 against 8,640! Thank goodness I checked! Love, Flavio Glad to hear that! Edwal
[Edited at 2004-04-18 02:26] | | |
Finereader is good but... | Apr 18, 2004 |
Attention! sometimes it make mistakes changing things like i to l, so you have to read the document carefully! Regards Toledo | | |
quote]Flavio Ferri Benedetti wrote: I am quite desperate. My clients will only pay per source word... and the source is a PDF file. --------- What's the problem? Just count it with PractiCount. | | |