This thread is not intended to criticize but question the status quo and ask, Is there a better way? As more of us are taking our PDF's and disseminating the information across multiple applications; Hero Lab, Realm Works, Map Tools, D20Pro, ect; I am finding it frustrating how difficult it is to get clean text out of the PDF's. I understand that the text is the way that it is, to have a certain look, and I REALLY appreciate the way my adventure path books are works of art. Is there a way for Paizo to have the product look the way they want, protect their Intellectual Property, and allow the clean cut and paste of text?
To give an example of what I am talking about here is excerpt I am working on from The Mummy's Mask, Empty Graves Pg 31. This text had to be copied in four sections due to the picture on the page. This is what you get out.
An unsettling and ominous structure, the round,
fo rtre ss-like building called the Cenotaph of the Cynic
stands apart fr om the other tombs in Wati's necropolis,
separated by 100 fe et of flattened rubble on all sides.
The Cenotaph was originally built in honor of those
who had fa llen to the Plague of Madness, but when the
Pharasmins created the necropolis, they repurposed it to
house the atheistic dead of Wati. In the years since the
Cenotaph's construction, an atheist sect oflamias called
the Amushet claimed the building. Originally part of
the Lamashtu cult that spread the Plague of Madness,
the Amushet fa red poorly in the plot, and the survivors
pledged to shun the capriciousness of the gods and offer
sanctuary to anyone with the same common sense. The
Amushet sisters move fr eely through the necropolis at
night, seeing and hearing all that transpires; the PCs can
spend time gaining usefu l info rma tion fr om the lamias
if they so choose, or put an end to
one of the city's longest-running
monstrous infe sta tions.
Nakht Shepses's suspicions about the
lamias' involvement is understandable-the
Amushet quietly rail against Wati's various
fa iths and occasionally fo und cults of charmed paramours
to enact their schemes-but the sisters have no involvement
with the undead uprising. In fa ct, the dead of the Cenotaph
have so fa r been unaffected by the ka pulse-perhaps the
fa ithle ssness of the dead interred within, or of the lamias
themselves, prevented the necromantic energies of the
Mask of the For,g otten Pharaoh fr om affecting them.
The Cenotaph of the Cynic stands nearly 40 feet tall.
Unless otherwise noted, the Cenotaph's ceilings are 15 feet
high, with walls of reinfo rced masonry and sturdy bronze
doors ( hardness 9, hp 60, break DC 28 ) . Use the map on
page 32 fo r this location.
It is very time consuming to put this back into paragraph form, between the double spaces, missing spaces, enter after every line, and letter substitution. What have you found to make this task less tedious?
I have the same issues when I do similar things. Find and replace covers a lot, especially in replacing line breaks with spaces or nothing. Then I use the spell-check to more easily show me the ones where extra spaces broke up words.
Between those, then I just have to go in and hit Enter to end paragraphs wherever I want.
Unfortunately, pdfs tend to throw in strange hidden characters for their own kerning and placement use. Especially when the text is so artfully arranged around images and other decorations.
If using Acrobat, you can try right-clicking on the text you want and selecting Copy with Formatting. That gets rid of the assorted line breaks whe you paste it into Word or whatever.
Depending on the size of the file, you can also try saving/exporting it as a Word document, which will do the same thing by and large.
