On 7 April 2010 10:54, Lars Nooden <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 4/6/10 9:12 PM, Drew Jensen wrote:
>
>> PDF is IMO the primary file format used by Scribus. Scribus IMO supports
>> pdf more deeply then does OpenOffice.org.
>>
>
> A few times a week we get threads with misperceptions about PDF.
>
> PDF is a for the terminal stage of a document's life cycle.
> From PDF, it can go two places: the printer or the bit bucket.
>
> We could save a lot of time and grief for the users or the list to get the
> word out that the original documents must be saved and that if all they have
> is the PDF, then they have lost the document, it is gone and not coming
> back.  "Gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone beyond, disablement,
> bail..." ;)
>
> Importing PDF is really a form of disaster mitigation and in many cases
> provides only an uneditable B.L.O.B. to embed in another file.
>
> Mac and Linux desktops have good PDF export and it is clear that it is
> export.  So that helps.
>
>
>  Well, Draw is just a drawing package, and OpenOffice.org is just an
>> suite of office applications but together they can do most of what used
>> to require a Desktop Publishing system.
>>
>
> One DTP feature missing from OOo Draw is the ability for text to flow
> between text frames.  QuarkXPress would be overkill for most users.
>
> The last few times I've had to send things to a commercial printer they've
> wanted SVG, but would begrudgingly accept encapsulated PDF.
> I didn't get a look at the software used, it would be useful to know, but
> it would help if Adobe's products supported ODF.
>
>  ... There seems to be a steady stream of folks asking about MS ...
>>
>
> Some is legit.  Some is just trolling / shilling.
>
>  So if they just ask about MS...
>>
>
> If they ask anything about MS (and are legitimate) then it is always
> necessary to ask clarifying questions about what is it they are really
> trying to do.  However, the individual will likely have difficulty
> expressing it or may speak Microserf which uses its own words instead of
> industry standard nomenclature.
>
> Regards
> /Lars
>
>
>
There are probably many reasons, apart from disaster mitigation, why I may
want to convert a PDF document into an editable form. The most obvious is
that the document isn't mine but I nevertheless want to modify it in some
way and re-publish it. For example, I may want to re-publish it after
converting parts of it into links pointing at other, possibly as yet
unwritten, documents. Or I may want to incorporate [large] parts of it in a
new document which I plan to publish. In either case, converting the PDF to
an editable format seems to me to be quite a legitimate requirement.

Having said that, shall we now adjourn to the discussion list? Please.


-- 
Harold Fuchs
London, England
Please reply *only* to [email protected]

Reply via email to