Re: [libreoffice-users] Libreoffice and import of text

On 20 May 2025 at 8:42, Jarek Krcmar wrote:

Date sent:              Tue, 20 May 2025 08:42:04 +0200
To:                     Users Libreoffice 
<users@global.libreoffice.org>
From:                   Jarek Krcmar <jarek.krcmar@email.cz>
Subject:                [libreoffice-users] Libreoffice and import of 
text

> Hello, I have one problem in Calc.I will open  File pdf and I cut it's 
> text in the clipboard, then open Calc and put the it into Calc, offers 
> several options import.But none of them does not suit me.I would like to 
> know, if I could sort the text into the columns and also to display the 
> dates that are included in the PDF file.

I've got the college I worked for before retiring and the University 
close by that put out Quarterly staffing Reports. Strangely, the 
documents are originally from Spreadsheets, but the export it to 
PDF Files. If I try to copy info from the pdf directly, and past it into 
writer or calc or text editor it comes out as a long column with 
random breaks, so is useless.

I've found the best option with both of these files is to use 
(Single line)
pdftotext -fixed 2 -layout -nopgbrk -q
     2025_03_30_staffing_pattern_final.pdf

This program converts the pdf file to a basic text file that could 
more easily be imported into calc or writer. Unfortuantely, it 
doesn't include column separates, so one would need to either 
figure how to cut the single lines into column parts. I've generally 
fount that using a cpp program to insert \t were the column 
separaters are does an easier job. Then import as a tab separated 
file. Sometimes using -fixed 3 works better. Just depends on each 
quarters file. 

I do this with Linux, but beliere there is a windows version 
available. 

Might want to get see how the text file it creates might be easier to 
work with. 

Only issue I have is numbers are off a little. But that is due to their 
original spreadsheet values having decimal values, but PDF doesn't 
include them in image. So due to rounding issues, totals are a little 
off. 

I then create PDF files in hybrid formation, which allows one to 
actually open the files in a regular PDF viewer, or open in calc and 
it gives spreadsheet view, which is much more useful. 

Hope that helps. 


> Could you give me an advice, please?
>
> I have LibreOffice portable version 25.2.3.
>
>
> -
> Jarek
>
> mám jeden problém v Calc.
>
> kdyžotevřu soubor pdf a skopíruju ho do schránky, pak otevřu Calc a 
> vložím do něj text, nabízí se několik možností importu.
>
> Ale žádná z nich mi nevyhovuje.
>
> Zajímalo by mě, jestli by bylo možné text seřadit do sloupců a taky, aby 
> se v něm zobrazily datumy, které jsou v tom pdf souboru obsaženy.
>
> S pozdravem
>
> -- 
> Jarek
>
>
> -- 
> To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
> Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
> Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
> List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
> Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy


+------------------------------------------------------------+
 Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor 
(Retired)     
 mailto:mikes@guam.net                            
 mailto:msetzerii@gmail.com
 mailto:msetzerii@gmx.com
 Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
 G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+------------------------------------------------------------+




-- 
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy