How to Extract Text from a PDF File on Mac with Ease

iskysoft

• Filed to: Mac Tutorials

While PDF does have its own set of advantages including enhancing security, what is somewhat lacking is its flexibility. Editing a PDF document can be complex and confusing. If you want to extract text from PDF, then you will find the whole process to be difficult. This can be due to the presence of graphics as well as the layout of the PDF file. Not to worry though, as in this article, you will find two easy and fast ways to extract the text you need from your PDF file with PDFelement Pro on Mac (10.15 Catalina included).

Part 1. The PDF Text Extractor You Need

For Mac users there is no better tool than the PDFelement Pro. With it, you would be able to extract any text from PDF with ease. It has a host of features through which you can easily edit any sort of PDF document. Some of its major offerings are:

  • You can edit a PDF like a word document. You can easily add, delete, cut and replace elements like text, images and watermarks etc.
  • You can easily convert the document into a Word document if you free more at ease editing there. The structure and layout of the file will be the same in the Word document.
  • You can combine multiple PDFs into one and split one into many. This can come in handy at multiple times.
  • Easily extract text and images from any part of the document and export them to any document in any other format.
macOS 10.15 Catalina

After you have downloaded PDFelement Pro for Mac (10.15 Catalina included), you then need to copy the icon into your Applications folder. Just drag the icon to Applications, and then follow the guide below to start copying the text you want from the PDF document.

Step 1. Open the PDF Document in the Program

Run the program and click the "Open File" button to import your PDF files to the program. After the document is loaded, you can then proceed to the next step.

open pdf

Step 2. Extract the Text You Want

Click the Edit button on the top toolbar and then select the text you want and after that, right-click to choose the "Copy" option. Now you have copied the text.

extract text

Step 3. Paste the Text Where You Want to

The next step is simple too. Just open another document where you wish to extract the text to and paste it the desired location. Here I have used Pages for Mac for simple depiction. You can paste the text by opening any other new Word document – it's pretty simple.

extract text from pdf

Part 2. How to Convert PDF to Word for Text Extraction

You can extract text after converting your PDF files to MS Word with PDFelement Pro. Some users say that this is the better option as a word processor can make things easier for you, if you are going to manage text anyway.

Step 1. Open Your PDF Document

Launch the program and click on "Open File" and browse to find the file you want to extract the image from. You can add multiple files for extraction. All image files will open in PDF format.

open pdf 10.15 Catalina

Step 2. Open the Conversion Tool

Navigate to the Toolbar and find the "Convert" button. Click it to open a new window where you can set the page range for your document.

convert pdf

Step 3. Set the Parameters

In the new window, you can add files for conversion, customize page range - and then click on "Convert" to start the process. After the conversion, you can easily copy and paste the text from the Word processor.

pdf to word

Using this software, you can maximize the full potential of any PDF document. It can come in very handy. For instance, suppose you are looking at all the invoices for the month to create a spread-sheet about total expense. You have to enter each invoice number and the documents are in PDF format. You can easily open them in the tool and extract the numbers to your spread sheet.

Tools like these come in very handy in various work purposes and must be used and taken advantage by professionals in any sphere of work. You are always going to need to select text or images out from PDF documents when you’re working. With the PDFelement Pro, you can do anything from extracting texts to images from PDF files easily.

iskysoft

Ivan Cook

chief Editor

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