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PDF text extractor (tool_pdf_extractor)

See also: Tools user guide · Developer reference

The PDF text extractor pulls the text content of a PDF you have attached to a record and drops it into a linked text field, adding page markers so you can locate each page later. It is meant to seed a transcription from a document you already hold, not to run OCR on a scan.

What it's for

When a record carries a PDF — an article, a report, a printed catalogue page — you often want its text inside a Dédalo text field so it becomes searchable and editable alongside the rest of the record. Copy-pasting from a PDF loses the page boundaries that let a reader jump to "page 12". This tool extracts the text with the page structure intact and writes it into the target text area for you.

Concrete scenario: a documentary archive holds scanned-and-OCR'd journal articles as PDFs on each Bibliography record. A cataloguer opens the PDF component, runs the extractor, and the full article text lands in the record's transcription field with a page tag at each page break — ready to correct, index and publish.

Note

This extracts the text layer already present in a PDF; it is not OCR. A PDF that is a pure image with no text layer will yield little or nothing. Make sure the PDF has extractable text first.

When to use it

  • A record has a PDF component and you want its text in a linked text field.
  • You want page markers so a reader can locate a page within the extracted text.

When not to use it:

  • The PDF is a photographed or scanned image with no text layer — extraction will be empty; the file needs OCR first.
  • You want a transcript of audio or video — that is the transcription tooling, not this tool.

Where to find it

The extractor is an inline tool on a PDF component (component_pdf). Open the PDF component on a record and you will find the Extract PDF file content action on it. It is PDF-only: it refuses to run on any other kind of component.

The extracted text is delivered to the record's linked text area component — the field configured to receive it — so both the PDF and its target text field live on the same record.

Using it, step by step

  1. Open a record that has a PDF component with an extractable text layer.
  2. Launch Extract PDF file content on the PDF component. A small panel opens.
  3. Optionally set Page in and Page out to extract only a page range. Leave both blank to extract the whole document — blank Page in starts at the first page, blank Page out runs to the last.
  4. Choose the extraction method with the txt / html radio. txt (the default) produces the finished plain-text transcription with page markers. html extracts structured HTML and inserts a page tag at each page boundary.
  5. Press Process. Extraction can take up to three minutes on a large document, so the panel shows a loading state while it works.
  6. Review the extracted text in the inline preview. The result is also handed to the linked text-area component as its new value.
  7. Use Select text to select the whole preview if you want to copy it elsewhere.

Options

Option What it does
Page in First page to extract (1-based). Blank means start at page 1.
Page out Last page to extract, inclusive. Blank means run to the last page.
Method (txt / html) txt extracts plain text (the default) with page markers already applied. html extracts structured HTML and inserts a page tag at each page break.

Tips and gotchas

Tip

Leave both page fields blank to extract the whole PDF. Set a range only when you need one section — for example a single article inside a bound journal issue.

Warning

Running the extractor sets the linked text field's value to the extracted text. If that field already holds a transcription you have edited, extraction replaces it — extract first, then correct, rather than the other way around.

Note

Extraction relies on an external PDF text engine (pdftotext / pdftohtml) being installed on the server. If it is missing or the PDF has no text layer, the panel shows an error instead of text. This is an installation-level requirement your administrator sets up.

  • Print — lays out record components (including long transcriptions) onto a printable page.
  • Developer reference — the get_pdf_data action, options and the extraction engine.