Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 July 30

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July 30

What language uses if!, enter!, exit!? II

This question reformulates my previous question with the same name above. I was quoting from memory, now I checked more details. There is a sample of code below.

I saw it in a French documentary about high-frequency trading on the stock market.

In what language is the code below written?

   Effectively buy
   IF Entry! >=0 THEN
       IF Entry! >0 THEN Prof! - (Curr! - A
   BS (Entry!))
       Entry! = Curr!
       Ext! = Curr!
   END IF

(...)

   LOOP
   CLOSE #1

(...)

   NEXT x!
   NEXT w!

Maxim! = -100 (...)

--Bickeyboard (talk) 11:26, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

This is BASIC Asmrulz (talk) 12:46, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Specifically QBasic, judging by the compound IF, DO..LOOP and file descriptors Asmrulz (talk) 13:14, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Even more specifically, the exclamation marks are type declaration characters, indicating that the variables are single-precision floats. Other such characters are # for double-precision floats, % for 16-bit integers, and & for 32-bit integers. Tevildo (talk) 16:01, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

How to convert a PDF file to Microsoft Word

I have a PDF file. Is there any way to convert a PDF file to a Microsoft Word document? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:15, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

That market is flooded. See lmgtfy.com/?q=convert+pdf+to+word 209.149.113.45 (talk) 18:40, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, but those seem to do the opposite. Namely, take a Word document and convert it to a PDF format. I can already do that in Word itself (under "Save As" or "Export", I forget which). I am looking for the other way around: starting out with a PDF file and converting it into a Word file. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:16, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

I do not understand how to think that way. For example, the third hit on the list for me is https://www.freepdfconvert.com/pdf-word which, if you go to the website, asks you to upload a PDF file and it returns a word file. The same with the other links https://www.pdftoword.com/ http://www.pdfonline.com/pdf-to-word-converter/ https://docs.zone/pdf-to-word ... as I said, it is a flooded market. 209.149.113.45 (talk) 12:48, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

For simple text copy-and-paste should work. For the general solution I would guess that there is a fundamental problem: The pdf might use a font that is not available on your computer, even if the structure of the document is converted correctly, line and page breaks will be off. 109.155.73.150 (talk) 00:07, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

You can "copy-and-paste" from a PDF file? You're kidding. I never knew that! Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:59, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

No, I just tried that. And that is not what I mean. When I did a "copy-and-paste" from the PDF into a Word document, that simply "took a picture" of the PDF page and copied it onto the Word page. I want the actual text from the PDF (not just an image of the text), so that I can go in and change some words, add words, remove words, fix typos, etc. Can this be done? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:03, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

You can copy and paste text from many PDF files. If you got an image when you did that, it's probably because the PDF only contains images (of text). You will have to use an OCR program to extract the text from the images, or transcribe them by hand. -- BenRG (talk) 03:49, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

It totally depends on how the PDF file was published. You can publish PDF files to be completely readable / copyable, or you can "lock them down" to the point where all you can do is take a screenshot. Vespine (talk) 04:17, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

AFAIK, there's no way you can lock down a PDF such that most PDF readers, including Adobe Reader, will take an image when you attempt to copy, at least in Windows. You can disable copying of the PDF, but AFAIK, in most readers that will mean you just can't copy from the PDF reader. On Windows if the program doesn't support copying and you try to, nothing will happen. Perhaps on other OSes this will take a screenshot instead, but not on Windows. You can of course use the built in OS screenshot functionality whether via shortcuts (Printscr etc) or an external tool, but it doesn't sound like the OP did that. So if they're copying and getting an image, this probably means the PDF is an image. Nil Einne (talk) 22:51, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

BTW, I should mentioned that these locks only work on readers which respect them. As with Word files or any similar popular and openly specced file types, provided the file can be opened, the locks aren't very effective. It's easily possible to not only find a reader which will ignore them, but to remove them. In certain countries, carrying out such countries may or may not violate laws such as the DMCA in the US, but the locks themselves don't do much. Nil Einne (talk) 17:50, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

This may be just an Acrobat Pro feature, but I am able to Save As -> Microsoft Word -> Word Document. Justin15w (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

That sounds perfect. I assume that Acrobat Pro is a product to purchase? And not free, like regular Adobe Acrobat. Correct? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:09, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Why do you want to convert it to Microsoft Word? If you want to edit in Microsoft Word, then Word has had the ability to convert PDFs since the 2013 version [1]. However as with all other tools including Acrobat Pro, this won't work if your PDF is just an image. You will need to OCR it first. Nil Einne (talk) 22:45, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

@Nil Einne: Wow, I am getting so confused with the above conversation. Mostly, because I am not at all familiar with PDF files and all their technical abilities. All I know how to do is open up a PDF and read it with Adobe Acrobat. So, back to your question about "Why do you want to convert it to Microsoft Word?". So, this is the situation. A friend gave me a document that I like and want to use. It is a PDF document. I don't like it 100%, so I would go in there and make a few changes: add words, remove words, fix spelling errors, etc. That is why I wanted to change it from PDF to Word. What's the best way to do what I am trying to do? (I have Word 2013.) Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:16, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi. Word 2013 introduced the ability to open PDFs. You can then save it as a Word document. This video shows how to do it. LibreOffice Writer (a free product), version 4.0 or higher, also has the ability to open PDFs. However, keep in mind that the import process is not perfect and the Word document will not look identical to the PDF, so you may have to touch it up a bit after opening it.

As for the technical discussion, Nil Einne was referring to the difference between text and pictures. PDFs can hold text, pictures, or both. In this case, the PDF can contain text, or it can itself be a picture of a page of text — just as if you pointed a camera at a page and took a picture of it. Now, if it's a picture of text, you would never be able to delete text, correct typos, etc. without some additional work that we haven't covered yet. But if it's text, you should be fine. I would just try and open it in your copy of Word and let us know how it goes.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 04:57, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes, I watched that video. I tried it with several PDF files. Some were PDF files of text. I was able to bring those into Word, and I was able to edit the text. That's exactly what I was looking to do. Some of the PDF files, however, were images (of text). So, when I transferred those into Word, I was not able to edit the text (since, technically, there was no text to begin with, rather just an image of some text). So, in the latter case, what – if anything – can be done? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:17, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

The process of converting images of text to editable text is called optical character recognition (OCR). There are many programs out there that can perform OCR on a PDF. ABBYY FineReader is one. Adobe Acrobat Professional is another. Both are offered as free trials and they're both easy to use. However, OCR is essentially guesswork on the part of the OCR program. You may find some words are mis-spelled (or left out entirely) by the program and that the formatting may be incorrect. The quality of the output will depend on the resolution and quality of the image of the page.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 05:16, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:48, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

How to create "fillable" forms in Microsoft Word

Sometimes, I use "fillable" forms. These are forms that have most of the information already printed on them, but then I go in and "fill" various blanks (such as name, address, etc.). How does one create such a fillable form? Is there a way to do so, in Microsoft Word? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:17, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Specific instructions depend heavily on the version of Word you are using. In general, see the instructions. 209.149.113.45 (talk) 18:41, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I am using Microsoft Word 2013. Is the link above the applicable one? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:09, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Did you click on the link? 209.149.113.45 (talk) 12:49, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes. It seemed quite long and complicated. I wasn't expecting such a long and drawn-out process. I thought it would be maybe 2 or 3 quick steps. (Since I know nothing at all about creating a fillable document.) So, I was not going to go through that entire process if it did not work for my particular version of Word. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:11, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:48, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Cursing the Cursor

On my laptop running Windows 7, when the pointer stays over a control field for too long the field is "activated" as if I left-clicked it. This to me is a major nuisance, opening unwanted windows, etc.

There must be a way to disable this but I can't find it. Please help.

The pointer is moved around the screen by a touch-pad below the keyboard. I know where the touch-pad settings are located but they do not seem to govern what happens if the pointer is left too long in one place. Thank you, CBHA (talk) 20:23, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't have a Windows system handy but I think this might be controlled by some handicapped assistance settings. Try looking for that while you wait for a better answer maybe. Dismas|^(talk) 21:07, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Agreed. That's called "hovering", so I'd look for that term. StuRat (talk) 21:41, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. I found a program group called "Ease of Access" which seems to be relevant to the problem. I'll have to experiment. CBHA (talk) 02:11, 31 July 2015 (UTC)