On Thu 17 Apr 2025 at 14:24:35 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote: > On 4/16/25 8:35 AM, David Wright wrote: > > Ironically, a copy/paste from xpdf seems to do a better job > > than -layout at preserving the columns widths over the page break. > > (Perhaps the text at the bottom of the second page messes with -layout.) > > I liked the text file you attached. Was that the default output of > xpdf itself? [Intend to experiment with it this weekend.]
In as much as I carried out the actions below, and the attached text was what accumulated in the editor's buffer. (Two pages of the report, so copy, paste, copy, paste.) > Someone recalled you saying xpdf was your default PDF viewer. Correct. In mc, if I press Return (≡Open) when the cursor is on a PDF, it opens in xpdf. If I press F3 (≡View), then it opens in zathura. F4 (≡Edit) can toggle between the raw text and a hex representation thereof. (I configured these choices in mc.) > So I installed it from the Debian repository via Synaptic. > [ I'm running Debian 12.8 with MATE 2.53.20 desktop. ] > In Caja I right click on TFP2021.pdf & choose open with xpdf. > So far so good ;) > I navigate to Table A4.14 without problem. > No problem selecting a rectangular area of interest. Yes, it should create a black (?inverse) rectangle over the area. > BUT how do I copy it somewhere useful? I can either press the middle (paste) mouse button, or I can press Shift-Insert. The latter may be a default key combination as I don't immediately see where it's configured. DEs might behave differently, especially when they try to ape Windows; so you might try ^V. So, where to press those keys: in your favourite editor's buffer. Don't paste into a shell/command line by accident (unless you've got bracketed-paste set: then it doesn't matter). Whether anything is pasted depends on there being some text in the selection buffer. Not all PDFs will let you copy stuff out like that. Also bear in mind that some PDF pages that look like text may actually be scanned images. With xpdf, the contents of the rectangle is copied, and I've always found the boundaries quite precise. OTOH with zathura, the rectangle only helps you remember where you started dragging from, as it copies in line-mode; and the boundaries are fuzzy compared with typical text selection (where the selection gets highlighted). > Where is a Toolbar with a sidebar button? Detlef posted about a sidebar. The only thing I've seen that used for is a navigation tree (like the ones in history and bookmarks for FF). > Where is "edit/copy menu"? > > Does xpdf have illustrations somewhere? > > I suspect xpdf is itself the tool I looking for. AKAIK dragging a mouse is just assumed knowledge nowadays. I haven't found it necessary to, say, press a key like ^C to copy, which a browser might require. And pasting into an edit buffer is again something one does as a matter of routine. Cheers, David.
