Hi, Maybe overly simplistic, but you can open the PDF file with LO. It will open in Draw and you can recover the information from there.
I hope this helps. Rémy. Le samedi 07 février 2026 à 09:35 -0500, Leonard Beeghley a écrit : > Try using an application called pdfgear to convert the pdf to an > excel or > word document, whichever is appropriate. You'll probably have some > formatting issues... Good luck. > > > > On Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 9:10 AM Waltr <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Peter, > > > > I consider this important, and have struggled with this in the > > past. > > There are a number of means to back convert from pdf. Most will > > preserve > > the text, but many will not preserve the layout and formatting > > data. A > > number of on line services will allow you to upload and convert to > > MSWord > > (.docx) and Libreoffice will read the .docx. There are a few that > > work > > well, but we, as a rule do not use these services because of the > > widespread > > and rampant data harvesting from internet companies. We believe > > there is > > substantial risk to sensitive personal and company information, so > > that > > leaves well vetted programs. > > > > I've had reasonable success at high res, ocr scanning but color > > rendition > > is lost or distorted. Sourceforge and GIT offer a number of open > > source > > programs. > > > > There is an older thread > > https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-to-convert-pdf-to-odt/12268/8 tha > > t has > > some helpful suggestions, but many are upload to internet and > > translate > > downloads. > > > > I've used okular (KDE) on FreeBSD but formating loss is evident. > > > > This is something I think everyone would like, but I don't know > > enough > > about the .pdf internal formats to know if the {odt, docx, ...} is > > a loss > > free translation or if .pdf writers lose formating information in > > the .pdf > > generated file. If anyone knows where the .pdf spec is found I can > > take a > > look at it and see how hard it would be. I suspect, though that > > since it > > isn't done well in many cases, it is not an easy back conversion to > > do. > > > > > > > > Walt > > > > > > Sent from ProtonMail, encrypted email based in Switzerland. > > > > Sent with Proton Mail secure email. > > > > On Saturday, February 7th, 2026 at 07:12, Peter Hillier-Brook < > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Hello All, > > > > > > I recently created a file consisting of 1 page, containing a 4 > > > column > > > table and exported it to PDF, foolishly failing to save the > > > original in > > > ODT. Does anyone know of a means of reversing the export to > > > reproduce > > > the original, editable ODT file? > > > > > > I know that this is not very important, but it would be nice if > > > the > > > possibility existed, thus avoiding the tedium of re-typing the > > > document. > > > > > > Regards. > > > > > > Peter HB > > > > > > -- > > > To unsubscribe e-mail to: > > > [email protected] > > > 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 > > > > -- > > To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] > > 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 > > > > > -- > Leonard Beeghley > -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] 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
