Save pdf as text

[SimpleSi]

I found this at Adobe by chance

how can I convert Adobe PDF files that are on my hard drive to text or HTML?
Use the free Adobe Reader to save the PDF file as text, or use the full version of Adobe Acrobat Professional or Acrobat Standard to save the file to text or other formats, including Rich Text Format (RTF), HTML, XML.

How long have we been able to do this

regards

Simon
[EDIT] - just tried it out - its rubbish - couldn't even parse a simple newsletter and export whole sentences [/EDIT]

[ICT_GUY]

For a long while you have been able to copy to the clipboard text from an unprotected pdf file.

[RabbieBurns]

I love adobe acrobat pro. Think it cost us all of £25. The OCR, import and export etc functionality has so many uses I find myself using it all the time. Think version 9 is due soon.

[CyberNerd]

I'm sure I read somewhere that OpenOffice3 will support pdf editing

[SeanVin]

Some PDFs are protected and others just contain scanned documents so cannot be converted or edited. You can use most OCR packages to import PDFs and convert them to text.