* Importing PDF Files

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BobWard
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Importing PDF Files

Post by BobWard »

Is there an issue with FH being able to display imported PDF files as multimedia files.

I have imported 2 PDF files and attached them as individual multimedia records.  All I see in the multimedia window is the PDF symbol.  The PDF files do not display in any of the standard report formats.

The only way that I can get the files to display their contents is to double click the file in the 'All Media - Multimedia Window'.

So I am guessing that the pdf files need to be converted to jpeg if I want them to display in reports?  Is this a correct assumption?

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BobWard
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Importing PDF Files

Post by BobWard »

I think I may have found an answer from a post by Mike Tate, as follows:
'FH does support virtually all file formats, including PDF and RTF and TIF.

However, it does differentiate between image file formats such as JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIF and textual/audio/video file formats such as PDF, RTF, DOC, TXT, WAV, MPEG, etc.
The former are automatically displayed in Multimedia windows and in Reports, but the latter are only opened via an external program.

To do so, use the red triangular Open in Editor/Player button found in Multimedia windows.'
Since PDF files do not display in the FH generated reports, I see no practical reason to continue to bring PDF files into FH.  I will just use jpeg from now on.
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PeterR
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Importing PDF Files

Post by PeterR »

Bob Ward said:
Since PDF files do not display in the FH generated reports, I see no practical reason to continue to bring PDF files into FH.  I will just use jpeg from now on.
However, a PDF file may contain text which may be searchable, albeit not within FH.  But if the image does not contain useful text, I agree that an image format such as JPEG is more useful.
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tatewise
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Importing PDF Files

Post by tatewise »

As Peter says, if the PDF is predominantly text then it can be searched once the PDF file is open in say Adobe Reader.
Alternatively, the text can be transferred to the Text From Source field in FH.

If the PDF is purely pictorial then it can be converted to an image file using say Utility ~ PDF To JPG Converter.
This also converts to PNG which is better than JPG as it is a loss-less format.

See also Adding Multimedia.
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justone
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Importing PDF Files

Post by justone »

The big problem with PDFs at the very moment is as following.
If you assume that a red triangle brings you to the external editor/viewer you're wrong.
And you're as wrong as you expect that what you got it what you see using the internal viewing capabilities.
Second issue is the more important one.

First on goes like this.
If you start from an indi's properties
press the yellow triangle to reach for a source record linked
select the media tab
a) do
press the yellow triangle again .. you see a subsection of the pdf
double click in there raises the external editor
b) or
double click the ole object, the Edit Media Item window opens
contains a red triangle you could press as open as you like, no effect
c) or
use the yellow box with arrow icon and switch to multimedia view
you see the again part of the pdf
the red triangle will work in here and raise the editor
double click will work aswell

I think the red triangles should either work everywhere or getting removed.

But that's cosmetical issues.

What's more an issue is the following thing. Assume you asked an official source for some information and was sent a 3 paged PDF file. On page1 there's normally their contact details aswell as your address and perhaps some starting sentences explaining it's the answer to your request, followed by the first lines of information. If lucky the end of page 1 looks so that you realise that there must be a page 2 aswell if not more pages. But who's lucky nowadays?

I once or more often asked myself why I did link this or that document, since when looking at it a year later I see next to no important information. Until I realise that FH only displays page1 of the PDFs.

My personal feeling is that this is worse but not displaying PDF contents at all since it bears the risk to delete something since one doesn't really see what the whole document does contain.

But if being asked if PDF support should be removed or fully implemented I would say it's a widely spread fileformat so it should be implemented.
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Jane
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Importing PDF Files

Post by Jane »

PDF documents are print ready, so can not be included in reports, you can already view documents attached to sources, much more easily than that.

Just hit the 'Show Multimedia' icon for source in the Property box, then click the red triangle.

Personally if a multipage PDF contains images I want to view or include in reports I convert them and attach multiple images to the source.
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tatewise
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Importing PDF Files

Post by tatewise »

I cannot reproduce any problem with the red triangle Open in Editor/Player button in any window, but my media are all simply linked PDF files, not OLE.

But if I insert a PDF (or any other type of document) as an OLE then I see the problem as described.
A side-effect of inserted OLE is that they get embedded within the GEDCOM file as a BLOB, which can make the GEDCOM very very large and is NOT recommended.
I agree that this mode of inserting PDF via OLE should only be supported with warnings about embedded BLOB.
Also all the red triangle buttons should work as expected.

However, it is not clear what FH should display if a PDF (or DOCX) OLE is say 99 pages long!
Perhaps it should scroll just like a large JPG/PNG image file.
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