You can now convert PDFs to the free OpenOffice 3.0 format, and from there to Microsoft Office, if you like. OpenOffice (also known as Open Office) is the free, open-source, Microsoft Office alternative.
- Download OpenOffice 3.0. You must have version 3.0 or later; previous versions will not import PDFs. Get it at the official OpenOffice site: http://www.openoffice.org. Follow the simple directions to install it.
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Step 2
Download the supersecret Sun PDF import extension. None of my geek friends seems familiar with this plugin although it’s free, completely legitimate and they should know better. It’s called pdfimport.oxt. Get it here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/node/874
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Step 3
Find where you downloaded pdfimport.oxt and click on it. Follow the directions to install.
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Step 4
Open a PDF file with OpenOffice. Tada! Now you can show off your knowledge to those kids who come to dinner parties dressed in “No I Won’t Fix Your Computer” t-shirts. And you can also edit PDFs.
Tips & Warnings-
OpenOffice is the flagship product of the Open Source community. It includes a word processor equivalent to Microsoft Word, spreadsheet equivalent to Excel, a Power-Point-type presentation program, a vector drawing program, a database program you can use instead of Mirosoft Access, and a math equations module.
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In OpenOffice 3.0, your PDF will open into OpenOffice Draw. When 3.1 is released, you will be able to open it in OpenOffice Write as well.
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If you find that your PDF has converted into graphics files, it’s likely that the original author simply used graphics files to create the PDF in the first place. If you need to manipulate the text, try running the graphics pages through an OCR (optical character reader) program.
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