ScanSoft PDF CREATE! 3-HELP Reference guide

ScanSoft PDF Converter 3
Online Help

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Welcome
Welcome to ScanSoft PDF Converter 3!
ScanSoft®PDF Converter 3 lets you convert PDF files to editable documents for
Microsoft®Word, Microsoft Excel and CorelTM WordPerfect®. It also lets you open
PDF files directly from these applications, edit them and save them in the
appropriate file type.
To learn more about ScanSoft's office productivity and speech recognition
solutions, please visit www.scansoft.com.
Copyright © 2005 ScanSoft, Inc. All rights reserved. Subject to change without
prior notice.
This program is protected by US and International copyright laws as described in
the About panel and in the topic Additional Resources.

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Introduction
Portable Document Format was introduced to publish documents across
computing platforms with a high-fidelity "as is" appearance. The ScanSoft PDF
Converter unlocks the content of PDF files, allowing large-scale editing and
reformatting to be done in Microsoft Word or other target applications. The
converter is designed to replicate the original PDF pages as closely as possible,
keeping columns, titles, pictures and framed elements as they were. To do this,
the converter has to explore and interpret the logical relationships and structures
used to store the document’s formatting in the PDF format.
PDF Converter opens PDF file versions from 1.0 to 1.6.
Note: ScanSoft PDF Converter 3 is designed to unlock PDF files; it does not
convert documents to the PDF format. The sister product, ScanSoft PDF Create!
3 performs this task.
PDF Converter has two main dialog boxes:
PDF Converter Assistant
This lets you start conversions, giving you a preview of the PDF file to be
converted and providing control over the process.
PDF Converter Settings
This can be called from the Tools menu of Microsoft Word, Excel, or
WordPerfect. When called from Word, it lets you choose whether to use
the PDF Converter Assistant or not for future conversions started from the
Microsoft Word Open dialog box. It also provides access to other settings.
PDF Converter distinguishes three types of PDF conversions:
Document,Form and Spreadsheet conversions.
You must specify before starting which type of conversion you want, because
PDF Converter uses different algorithms for each. When you use the PDF
Converter Assistant, specify this in its first panel (Preview). If you dismiss the
Assistant (in the File Open Settings panel of the PDF Converter Settings dialog
box), you must specify whether future one-click processing will be converting
PDF files as documents or forms. Your settings are stored separately for each
type of conversion.

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Language support
When converting PDF files as documents or spreadsheets, ScanSoft PDF
Converter can handle over a hundred languages using the Latin alphabet,
including Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German,
Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. It can
convert multi-lingual documents. When converting PDF files as forms, eleven
languages are supported. A full list of supported languages is provided.
Converting image-only pages with OCR (Document Options panel) needs also a
language choice. Click Settings to check the language selection. The same
language selection is valid for recognizing non-standard encoded pages.
How to get Help
This product is supplied with a printed Quick Reference Guide giving mainly
installation and activation guidance. This guide is available in a PDF file on the
CD and after installation in the program folder, named pdf converter quick
reference-xxx.pdf, where xxx denotes your installation language. It can also be
accessed from the About panel. When the program is delivered electronically,
this PDF document should be consulted. It is available at the download site.
All program screens and some warning messages have Help buttons.
Press F1 or click the Help button when the About panel is displayed to open the
online Help provided in a PDF file. Use the bookmarks or the search function in
your PDF viewer to find the information you need. You can download a PDF
viewer free of charge from the internet. ScanSoft PDF Converter Professional
can also display PDF files.

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System Requirements
The following are the minimum system requirements to install and run the
ScanSoft®PDF Converter 3.0:
A computer with at least an Intel®Pentium®processor or comparable
Microsoft Windows®98 (from second edition), Windows Me, Windows
2000, or Windows XP
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or above
64 MB of memory (RAM), 128 MB recommended
90 MB of free hard disk space for application files plus 5 MB working
space during installation
5 MB for Microsoft Installer (MSI) if not present. (This is present as part of
the operating system in Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP)
SVGA monitor with 256 colors, but preferably 16-bit color (called High
Color in Windows 2000 and Medium Color in XP) and 800 x 600 pixel
resolution
Windows-compatible pointing device
CD-ROM drive for installation
Internet connection for activation, de-activation and automatic program
updates.
Conversion can be performed whether or not the target applications are installed
on your system. However, to use the results, you need the applications
associated to the target file types you want to use (for example Microsoft Word
97, Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word XP or Microsoft Word 2003 (SP1) for
.doc files, the same versions of Microsoft Excel for .xls files and Corel
WordPerfect 9 through 12 for .wpd files).
Note: Performance and speed will be enhanced if your computer’s processor,
memory, and available disk space exceed minimum requirements. This is
especially true when converting very large color PDF files.

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Installation and Activation
Please uninstall any previous version of PDF Converter before the
installation.
1. Insert the CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive
The installation program will start automatically. If it does not, locate your
CD-ROM drive in Windows Explorer and double-click the converter’s
setup.exe file. Choose a language for the installation. The InstallShield®
Wizard will appear.
(If you have downloaded the converter from the ScanSoft web site just
double-click its setup.exe file.)
2. Follow the on-screen instructions
You must accept the license agreement in order to proceed.
You must enter a serial number. You will find this on the CD sleeve or on
the ScanSoft web site at the download location. Be sure to keep the serial
number in a safe place; it is fully checked only during product activation
and is also needed for any re-installations.
The installer offers a default location for the program. Accept it or define a
different one.
In the program folder's sub-folders you will find the Readme file in HTML
format and the Quick Reference Guide in PDF format.
3. Click Finish
4. Register
Registration runs at the end of installation. Select Register Online to
establish a connection to the ScanSoft web site. We provide an easy
electronic form that can be completed in a few minutes. When the form is
filled, click Submit.
If you decide not to register or to be reminded later, you can go to
www.scansoft.com to register online any time later. Click on Support and
from the main support screen choose Register in the left-hand column.
For a statement on the use of your registration data, please see
ScanSoft’s Privacy Policy.

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5. Activate
You will be invited to activate the product at the end of installation. Please
ensure that web access is available. Provided your serial number is found
at its storage location and has been correctly entered, no user interaction
is required and no personal information is transmitted.
If you do not activate the product at installation time, you will be invited to
do this each time you invoke the program. PDF Converter can be
launched only five times without activation.
Note: Any earlier version of PDF Converter should be removed before installing
version 3. Keep the serial number of the earlier version, to retain the option of
installing it on a different computer.
Note: The user performing installation or un-installation should have
Administrator rights on the computer. Administrator rights are recommended for
activation and de-activation.
Note: You will be allowed to re-install the program a reasonable number of times
without having re-activation problems, because uninstallation includes a de-
activation step. The serial number is needed for re-installation and web access is
needed for de-activation and re-activation.
Note: The program can be installed on a server and pushed to local computers in
a Local Area Network (LAN). Please contact ScanSoft for license information and
separate documentation.

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New Features
Support for spreadsheet output from tables in PDF files.
New output formats WordPerfect, Microsoft Excel and Rich Text (RTF).
An extended range of PDF files can be successfully converted.
Built-in OCR helps in converting image-only files into textual documents
without the requirement to have a separate OCR program installed.
Document analysis and layout retention capabilities are improved.

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Starting the Program
To make the services of PDF Converter easy to call on, it can be started from
several locations:
1. The Windows Start Menu
2. The Open PDF button in a Microsoft Word toolbar
3. The Open dialog box in Microsoft Word
4. From Microsoft Outlook
5. From Microsoft Internet Explorer
6. From Windows Explorer
7. From Microsoft Excel
8. From WordPerfect
Procedures
1. The Windows Start Menu
1. Choose Start, then Programs or All Programs, then ScanSoft PDF
Converter 3.0.
2. Choose PDF Converter Assistant from the sub-menu. The PDF Converter
Assistant appears displaying its Preview panel.
3. Decide the output file format first.
Select Document for general conversions and then choose Microsoft
Word, WordPerfect or Rich Text Format under Target.
Select Form for PDF files containing forms. The only target application
is Microsoft Word is this case.
Select Spreadsheet for PDF files containing tables that you want
converted to spreadsheets. The only target application is Microsoft
Excel.
4. Enter a PDF file name with full path and extension or browse to select a
file and click Open. A preview of the first PDF page appears.
5. Use the navigation buttons to view other pages.
6. Accept or modify the offered name and path for the output file to be
created. The offered name and path are those of the input PDF. Only the
extension is changed from PDF to DOC, RTF or XLS depending on your
previous choice under Convert as.
7. Use the checkmark under the file names to have the converted document
opened in the target application.

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8. Set a page range if desired. See Preview panel.
9. Move through other PDF Converter Assistant panels specifying settings.
See Document Options panel, Form Options panel and Spreadsheet
Options panel. Only one of these panels will be active, depending on the
choice made under point 3.
10.Click Convert to begin conversion according to your settings.
11.The converted file is saved to disk under the name you specified. It is
loaded into the target application if you requested that.
2. The Open PDF button in a Microsoft Word toolbar
1. Click the Open PDF button in a Microsoft Word toolbar or the Open
PDF... item in the File menu. The Open dialog box appears and behind it
the PDF Converter Assistant with its Preview panel.
2. Enter a PDF file name with full path and extension or browse to select a
file and click Open. A preview of the first PDF page appears in the
Assistant.
3. Decide the output file format first: Document or Form.
4. Use the navigation buttons to view other pages.
5. Accept or modify the offered name and path for the Word file to be
created. The offered name and path are those of the input PDF. Only the
extension is changed from PDF to DOC. The named file will be displayed
in Word when conversion is finished.
6. Set a page range if desired. See Preview panel.
7. Move through other PDF Converter Assistant panels specifying settings.
See Document Options panel and Form Options panel.
8. Click Open to begin conversion according to your settings.
9. The converted file is saved to disk under the name you specified, and is
loaded into Microsoft Word.
Note: If you do not see the PDF button in a toolbar, go to View / Toolbars and
select the PDF Converter toolbar.
3. The Open dialog box in Microsoft Word
1. Click Open or go to the Microsoft Word File menu and click Open...

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2. Click the PDF (Portable Document Format) (*.pdf) format in the Files of
type box.
3. Select the PDF file you want to convert. Multiple selection is possible.
4. Click Open.
5. Conversion starts with or without the PDF Converter Assistant, as
specified in PDF Converter Settings.
6. If the PDF Converter Assistant is enabled, the PDF is previewed and you
can change settings as described above, and then start the conversion. If
the PDF Converter Assistant is disabled, conversion starts immediately,
using existing settings.
7. The progress monitor is displayed along with a series of tips.
8. The converted, editable document is displayed in Microsoft Word. See the
note at the end of this topic on saving the file.
Note: You can select two or more PDF files from a folder; each file will be
converted into a separate Word document, each waiting to be saved with Save
As.... From all other starting places, only one file can be converted at a time.
4. From Microsoft Outlook
1. Select a message that has a PDF attachment. The PDF Converter button
will become active.
2. Click the PDF Converter button in the Outlook toolbar or in the message
toolbar. A dialog box appears.
3. If the message has more than one PDF, select which PDF to convert.
4. Choose "Use PDF Converter Assistant" to preview the PDF and change
settings as described above, then start the conversion. For direct
conversions, choose "Convert PDF without Assistant as" then choose a
target application for your output file from the selection box. See point 3
under Procedure 1. In the latter case, conversion starts when you click
OK, using existing settings.
5. The progress monitor is displayed along with a series of tips.
6. The converted, editable document is displayed in the target application,
provided the View converted document option is active.
Note: For direct conversions the save path is "My Documents", i.e. you will find
the converted PDF file in the selected output file format under My Documents.
When you use the PDF Converter Assistant, the default save path is "My
Documents", but you can change the path under Save as before starting
conversion.

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5. From Microsoft Internet Explorer
1. Right click on a hyperlink leading to a PDF file or to an HTML page hosting
a PDF.
2. Choose Open with ScanSoft PDF Converter 3.0 from the shortcut menu.
This menu item appears for all hyperlinks but has an effect only when the
link leads to a PDF.
3. Conversion is always performed through PDF Converter Assistant.
6. From Windows Explorer
1. Right-click on a PDF icon or file name in Windows Explorer or a PDF icon
on your desktop.
2. Choose Convert PDF from the shortcut menu and then choose a
processing method and a target application (Word, WordPerfect or Excel)
or use PDF Converter Assistant.
7. From Microsoft Excel
1. Click the Open PDF button in a Microsoft Excel toolbar or the Open
PDF... item in the File menu. The Open dialog box appears.
2. Enter a PDF file name with full path and extension or browse to select a
file and click Open. A preview of the first PDF page appears in the
Preview panel of the PDF Converter Assistant.
3. Use the navigation buttons to view other pages.
4. Accept or modify the offered name and path for the output file to be
created. The offered name and path are those of the input PDF. Only the
extension is changed from PDF to XLS. The named file will be displayed in
the target application when conversion is finished.
5. Set a page range if desired. See Preview panel.
6. Move to the Spreadsheet Options panel to specify settings. Check the
language setting for image-only pages if you want to use the built-in OCR
for recognizing page content.
7. Click Open to begin conversion according to your settings.
8. The converted file is saved to disk under the name you specified, and is
loaded into Microsoft Excel.
Note: If you do not see the PDF button in a toolbar, go to View / Toolbars and
select the PDF Converter toolbar.

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8. From WordPerfect
1. Click the Open PDF... item in the File menu. The Open dialog box
appears.
2. Enter a PDF file name with full path and extension or browse to select a
file and click Open. A preview of the first PDF page appears in the
Preview panel of the PDF Converter Assistant.
3. Use the navigation buttons to view other pages.
4. Accept or modify the offered name and path for the output file to be
created. The offered name and path are those of the input PDF. Only the
extension is changed from PDF to WPD. The named file will be displayed
in the target application when conversion is finished.
5. Set a page range if desired. See Preview panel.
6. Specify settings if required in the Document Options panel.
7. Click Open to begin conversion according to your settings.
8. The converted file is saved to disk under the name you specified, and is
loaded into WordPerfect.
Note: In all cases, you can cancel the conversion process by pressing Escape. If
you start the program when it is already running, a second instance is started.
Note: ScanSoft PDF Converter integration in Microsoft Outlook, Internet
Explorer, Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Office can each be enabled and
disabled in the Enable Shortcuts panel of the PDF Converter Assistant.

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PDF Converter Assistant
The PDF Converter Assistant gives you control over the conversion process.
Access the Assistant from
the Windows Start menu,
the Open PDF button in a Word or Excel toolbar or the Open PDF... item
in the File menu of Microsoft Word, Excel or Corel WordPerfect,
the Internet Explorer using the Open with ScanSoft PDF Converter
shortcut menu item.
In these cases you name the input PDF file and the target file in the Assistant
before conversion begins.
You can choose to use or dismiss the Assistant when starting conversions from
Microsoft Outlook
Windows Explorer
The PDF Converter Assistant offers the following panels:
Preview
This shows a preview of the PDF and lets you define the conversion type
(Document / Form / Spreadsheet), the output format (Word or WordPerfect for
documents, Word for forms or Excel for spreadsheets) and the page range.
Document Options
This panel always appears when:
Document processing is selected in the Previewpanel.
PDF Converter Settings is selected from Microsoft Word Tools menu.
Processing is started from WordPerfect.
It lets you decide how image-only pages, layout, color conversion and resolution
for graphic elements should be handled and which languages should be
recognized during a conversion with OCR.

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Form Options
This panel always appears when:
Form Processing is selected in the Preview panel.
PDF Converter Settings is selected from the Microsoft Word Tools menu.
It allows you to choose from eleven languages or select Multi-lingual, and lets
you retain color images or convert them to B&W.
Spreadsheet Options
This panel always appears when:
Spreadsheet Processing is selected in the Preview panel.
PDF Converter Settings is selected from the Microsoft Excel Tools menu.
It lets you decide how image-only pages, color conversion and resolution for
graphic elements should be handled and which languages should be recognized
during a conversion with OCR.
Enable Shortcuts
This panel appears only from the Windows Start Menu. It allows you to enable /
disable Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Right Mouse Click, Microsoft Office,
WordPerfect Office and Automatic Web Updates.
About
This shows version and serial numbers and provides access to product support
and latest update.

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Preview Panel
Convert as
Choose one of the following options to define the type of conversion you want:
Document: The pages have body text and maybe titles, columns, tables
and pictures.
Form: The pages have spaces, answer boxes, comb boxes, checkmarks
and similar elements for collecting information.
Spreadsheet: The tables in the input document will be converted to Excel
worksheets.
For Documents, you can also choose a target output format: Word, WordPerfect
or Rich Text. For Forms Microsoft Word is the only choice and for Spreadsheets
MS Excel. Depending on your choice, the panel Document Options,Form
Options or Spreadsheet Options is available. Sometimes, form-like PDF files can
also be processed successfully as documents. For more guidance, see
Converting Forms,Converting Documents and Converting Tables to
Spreadsheets.
Preview
Once an input PDF file name is chosen, a preview of its first page appears in the
Preview pane. Click inside it to see an enlarged view in a separate window.
Close this window with OK if you want to view other pages. Use the navigation
buttons to go to the next page, last page, previous page and first page. The
display shows how many pages are in the file.
The icon in the top-right corner of the Preview panel gives page information:
A text layer was detected for this page. It can be converted to editable text.
This page is image-only. No text layer was detected, or password protection
prohibits access to the text layer. PDF Converter can generate editable text from
this page, but must use its built-in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for this.
See Image-only PDF Files and Protected PDF Files.

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Page Range
The default value is All Pages. After each conversion, this setting reverts to All
Pages. Specify a page range using a hyphen and commas to separate
instructions.
Example Pages to be converted
2 Page 2 only
3-7 Pages 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
8-4 Pages 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4
-5 Pages 1, 2 ,3 ,4 and 5
11- All pages from 11 to end of file
2-4, 6, 9-7 Pages 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 8, 7
- 3, 15-18, 22-20 Pages 1, 2, 3, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 21, 20
When you perform a one-click conversion without calling the PDF Converter
Assistant, all pages in the PDF are converted.

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Document Options Panel
This panel appears in the PDF Converter Assistant and also in the PDF
Converter Settings dialog box. It is available in the Assistant only if Document is
selected under Convert as in the Previewpanel.
Image-only Pages
PDF Converter converts image-only PDF pages using Optical Character
Recognition (OCR). An icon in the top-right corner of the Preview panel tells you
whether the displayed page has a text layer or not. Choose here how PDF
Converter should handle image-only pages:
Convert Page with OCR
PDF Converter will perform the conversion by calling its built-in OCR. Full
language support is available with more than 100 languages.
Settings
You can change the recognition language and the reject character under
Settings. To achieve the best accuracy, select only the languages your
document contains. Unrecognizable characters are represented by a reject
character which is a tilde ~ by default. You can change this reject character if you
wish.
Skip
Image-only pages will be skipped. When pages are skipped, you will be notified
at the end of processing. The converted document will have fewer pages than the
source PDF.
Add to Document as Image
Image-only pages will appear in the target file as full-page images. Text on those
pages will not be editable, but the pages can be printed. You will be notified at
the end of processing if pages were transferred as image. The target file may be
large; you can reduce file size by setting Color Conversion to Grayscale or
Black-and-White or lowering the resolution for graphics elsewhere in this panel.
Inspect First Pages
Select the inspection checkmark to have the first pages of PDF files inspected.
Define how many pages should be inspected by entering a value between 1 and
10. We suggest placing a value of at least 2 because many PDF files have an
image-only cover page followed by pages with text layers.

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Note: There is one password protection scenario in which the PDF will be treated
as if it were image-only and will be handled according to your settings here. See
Protected PDF Files.
Retain
Choose which elements to retain or drop during the conversion.
Rule Lines
Retain or drop dividing lines in tables and other lines on the page.
Headers and Footers
Select this to have headers and footers detected and transmitted to the target
application. De-select this to have headers and footers transferred as normal text
elements.
Hyperlinks
Select this to have hyperlinks detected and transferred. De-select this to have
link text transferred as normal text.
Text and Background Color
Select this to have text coloring transferred to the Word document. Shaded and
colored backgrounds will also be transferred. De-select this to have all text
transferred as black, and colored or shaded backgrounds converted to white. De-
selecting this setting does not prevent the transfer of colored or grayscale
graphics.
Selecting this is recommended when the PDF contains colored texts or
backgrounds because layout retention is likely to be better. De-selecting this
when the PDF does not contain colored texts and backgrounds will speed up
conversions.
Layout
PDF Converter retains page layout as faithfully as possible. Choose from two
layout styles:
Flowing Column
Graphics and framed elements are placed in text boxes. Whenever possible,
other text is transferred without using text boxes, so text flows from one column
to another. This setting is recommended when the PDF has a typical columnar
structure, when the text flow is from top-to-bottom and left-to-right. This setting is
not recommended for converting form-like PDF files.

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True Page
When using True Page®, all elements are placed in text boxes, including text in
columns. This setting is recommended for pages with a complex layout
containing many framed elements and when the text flow between columns is
untypical. This setting can be used for general documents, and may also be used
to convert form-like PDF files. See Converting Forms.
If layout has changed during conversion, try reprocessing the PDF file with the
other setting.
Use PDF tags
Tags contain information on paragraphs and other elements on a PDF page, to
allow programs reading the PDF to have some knowledge of the page layout and
structure. Select this to give PDF Converter access to this information. It will use
this in addition to its own page layout detection. Not all PDF files contain tags.
Recognize non-standard encoded pages
Most PDF files use standard character encoding. If not this is the case, enable
this option to extract text using OCR. Language selection made in the OCR
Settings dialog box will be used.
Color Conversion
There are three color categories: Color, Grayscale, Black-and-white.
Same as Original
Select this to create an output file with the same color category as the original.
You must select this if you want color to appear in your converted document.
Grayscale
Select this to have color pages converted to grayscale. Grayscale pages remain
as grayscale; black-and-white pages remain as black-and-white.
Black-and-White
Select this to have color and grayscale pages converted to black-and-white. This
will deliver smaller file sizes, but grayscale or color pictures will lose all their
detail.
Note: The Color Conversion setting and the Resolution setting are applied to all
graphics in the PDF file, and also to image-only pages in the PDF when they are
transferred as image pages into the target application.