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Post Info TOPIC: PDF Files & Data Tables
Do PDF files suck? [8 vote(s)]

Yes
12.5%
Suck is an understatement!
87.5%


Vice JDK
and Man of the People





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Posts: 5453
Date: Jan 13, 2005
PDF Files & Data Tables


Do not properly coerce to rtf format when saving as and rtf file. I'm trying to convert 128 tables into an Excel format and this is not helping!!




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I am the Jammie King!




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Posts: 12736
Date: Jan 14, 2005

Specifically, they suck monkey's balls.

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A.K.A. Damo_Daly
I have a cool name...


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Posts: 559
Date: Jan 14, 2005

Yep, they sook (Scots for 'suck')

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I am the Jammie King!




Status: Offline
Posts: 12736
Date: Jan 14, 2005

Should that be more of an 'Och aye, th'sook'?

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Still Number One

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Posts: 576
Date: Jan 14, 2005

The only thing I find useful about them is to publish information that should never have anything done with it other than read. Working for the city, we use them to publish legal crap. Thats about it. They are always the FINAL destination for data.

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Proud House-Owner




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Posts: 1139
Date: Jan 14, 2005

Yeh I agree with that. I send out up to 15 reports per day in pdf, but only because if the information was ever changed, there's a legal liability.


Other than that



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Vice JDK
and Man of the People





Status: Offline
Posts: 5453
Date: Jan 14, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by: BrianS

"The only thing I find useful about them is to publish information that should never have anything done with it other than read. Working for the city, we use them to publish legal crap. Thats about it. They are always the FINAL destination for data."


This I can understand. But the U.S. government gets too caried away with PDFs, isn't it the law that certain public documents have to be published in PDF formats?


What's up with the IRS providing tax forms in PDF format?


http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/lists/0,,id=97817,00.html


What, am I supposed get out my pen and paper and go to work on this thing? Give me something useful, like an Excel file!


Right, my quandary is completely effed up. I'm being given 6 huge PDF files (like 400 pages) on a monthly basis chock-a-bloc full of numbers that I'm supposed to analyze. Say what? I'm not rekeying that crap!


So here's what I do. Save the sucker as an rtf format. This almost works, the problem is that null fields don't coerce properly, they're ignored and now I have jumbled fields amongst my 10,000 records. I can try to hack around this, but it'd be nicer if the software actually worked as advertised!!


So, pretend this works, which it doesn't, then I can open the file in Word, open Excel and run something like the following:





Sub PullWordTables2()
Dim wrdObj As Object, tbl As Object
Dim ws As Worksheet, i As Long
On Error GoTo errTime
Set wrdObj = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
For Each tbl In wrdObj.activedocument.tables
    i = i + 1
    tbl.Range.Copy
    Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
    With ws
        .Move , Sheets(ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Count)
        .Name = "Table " & i
        .Range("a1").PasteSpecial xlValues
        Application.CutCopyMode = False
        .Cells.Replace What:="/", Replacement:=vbNullString
    End With
Next
errTime:
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Set ws = Nothing
Set wrdObj = Nothing
If CBool(Err.Number) Then _
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub



And bingo, I got 193 new worksheets with all of the tables in about 8 seconds... But I still have to overcome the effed up rtf coversion!!


PDF files are the bane of my existence!!



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Proud House-Owner




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Posts: 1139
Date: Jan 14, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by: NateO

" What, am I supposed get out my pen and paper and go to work on this thing?"


Well sometimes you get lucky and they use pdfs that you can fill out online



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Vice JDK
and Man of the People





Status: Offline
Posts: 5453
Date: Jan 14, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by: Andromeda

" Well sometimes you get lucky and they use pdfs that you can fill out online"

Lucky?

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Proud House-Owner




Status: Offline
Posts: 1139
Date: Jan 15, 2005

well lucky as compared to a pen


I don't know about you, but I've been typing for so many years that now when someone hands me a pen and paper I get all palsy and can barely form letters



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Vice JDK
and Man of the People





Status: Offline
Posts: 5453
Date: Jan 18, 2005

I can barely hand write cheques anymore. And my handwriting has gone from barely legible to a complete disaster...

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Tickle me, Elmo!

I'm Roger Moore's Stunt Double!



Status: Offline
Posts: 4936
Date: Jan 18, 2005

Nice and easy to forge then.

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Vice JDK
and Man of the People





Status: Offline
Posts: 5453
Date: Jan 18, 2005

Not sure, the kind of chaos we're talking about here might be hard to replicate.



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You can't polish a turd


Tickle me, Elmo!

I'm Roger Moore's Stunt Double!



Status: Offline
Posts: 4936
Date: Jan 18, 2005



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Don't you just love it?
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