Conversion from printout to syntax

[John F Hall]

The Polytechnic of North London was funded as a teaching institution, not research.  Consequently some research projects prior to 1986 (especially individual and group projects by students) were routinely wiped from the disk on the main computer.  From 1987 onwards I avoided this problem by including such projects in my research unit disk allocation.  

 

I still have *.dat and *.sps (data list) files for some of these, and can restore the *.sys files as *.sav, but some *.sps files with variable and value labels are lost.  However, I have just discovered some (Vax cluster) printer output which contains listings of raw data (in 80-column records) and SPSS setup syntax.  Does anyone know of any software which could read pdf scans of the output and convert them to raw data in *.txt files or to Notepad, Word for reading into *.sps files or even converting direct to SPSS syntax?

 

I'll wait for this to appear on Nabble and post examples in pdf format.

 

John F Hall  MA (Cantab) Dip Ed (Dunelm)

[Retired academic survey researcher]

 

Email:          [hidden email]

Website:     Journeys in Survey Research

Course:       Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)

Research:   Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)

 

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

[Adrian Barnett-2]

Hi John

The current version of Microsoft Word does a reasonable job of converting PDFs into Word format. From there they can be exported as plain text which can be edited in your preferred text editor for any necessary cleanups.

There are a couple of reviews below of freeware PDF editors if Word botches the job or you don't have access to a version that is recent enough:  

You will need to find one that allows exporting as plain text.

https://www.techradar.com/au/news/the-best-free-pdf-editor

Edit PDFs for free with these great tools

Edit PDFs for free with these great tools Roland Waddilove We've rounded up the very best PDF editors which will cost you nothing at all.

I hope something in the above will do the job without driving you round the bed :-)

On Wednesday, 5 June 2019, 5:29:57 pm ACST, John F Hall <[hidden email]> wrote:

The Polytechnic of North London was funded as a teaching institution, not research.  Consequently some research projects prior to 1986 (especially individual and group projects by students) were routinely wiped from the disk on the main computer.  From 1987 onwards I avoided this problem by including such projects in my research unit disk allocation.  

 

I still have *.dat and *.sps (data list) files for some of these, and can restore the *.sys files as *.sav, but some *.sps files with variable and value labels are lost.  However, I have just discovered some (Vax cluster) printer output which contains listings of raw data (in 80-column records) and SPSS setup syntax.  Does anyone know of any software which could read pdf scans of the output and convert them to raw data in *.txt files or to Notepad, Word for reading into *.sps files or even converting direct to SPSS syntax?

 

I'll wait for this to appear on Nabble and post examples in pdf format.

 

John F Hall  MA (Cantab) Dip Ed (Dunelm)

[Retired academic survey researcher]

 

Email:          [hidden email]

Website:     Journeys in Survey Research

Course:       Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)

Research:   Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)

 

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

[Bruce Weaver]

John sent me one of his PDFs off-list.  To view it, visit this thread in the
Nabble archive, and click on the link for the uploaded PDF.

 
http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/Conversion-from-printout-to-syntax-td5738017.html

Judging by the nature of the PDF (i.e., an image rather text that can be
selected, copied, etc.), I doubt the methods suggested by Adrian will work.  

Vax_output_(Brent_staff_1990).pdf
<http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/file/t7186/Vax_output_%28Brent_staff_1990%29.pdf>  

HTH.



Adrian Barnett-2 wrote

> Hi John
> The current version of Microsoft Word does a reasonable job of converting
> PDFs into Word format. From there they can be exported as plain text which
> can be edited in your preferred text editor for any necessary cleanups.
> There are a couple of reviews below of freeware PDF editors if Word
> botches the job or you don't have access to a version that is recent
> enough:  You will need to find one that allows exporting as plain text.
>
> https://www.techradar.com/au/news/the-best-free-pdf-editor
>
> Edit PDFs for free with these great tools
>
> |
> |
> |
> |  |  |
>
>  |
>
>  |
> |
> |  |
> Edit PDFs for free with these great tools
>
> Roland Waddilove
>
> We've rounded up the very best PDF editors which will cost you nothing at
> all.
>  |
>
>  |
>
>  |
>
>
>
> I hope something in the above will do the job without driving you round
> the bed :-)
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Adrian
> --
> Adrian Barnett        | "It's always the trombone player"
>                       | (Faye Dunaway in 'The Arrangement')
> Email:

> adrianbarnett1@.com

>  
>
>     On Wednesday, 5 June 2019, 5:29:57 pm ACST, John F Hall &lt;

> johnfhall@

> &gt; wrote:  
>  
>  

> The Polytechnic of North London was funded as a teaching institution, not
> research.  Consequently some research projects prior to 1986 (especially
> individual and group projects by students) were routinely wiped from the
> disk on the main computer.  From 1987 onwards I avoided this problem by
> including such projects in my research unit disk allocation.  
>
>   
>
> I still have *.dat and *.sps (data list) files for some of these, and can
> restore the *.sys files as *.sav, but some *.sps files with variable and
> value labels are lost.  However, I have just discovered some (Vax cluster)
> printer output which contains listings of raw data (in 80-column records)
> and SPSS setup syntax.  Does anyone know of any software which could read
> pdf scans of the output and convert them to raw data in *.txt files or to
> Notepad, Word for reading into *.sps files or even converting direct to
> SPSS syntax?
>
>   
>
> I'll wait for this to appear on Nabble and post examples in pdf format.
>
>   
>
> John F Hall  MA (Cantab) Dip Ed (Dunelm)
>
> [Retired academic survey researcher]
>
>   
>
> Email:         

> johnfhall@

>  
>
> Website:     Journeys in Survey Research
>
> Course:       Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
>
> Research:   Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
>
>   
>  =====================To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a
> message

> toLISTSERV@.UGA

>  (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except thecommand. To leave the list,
> send the commandSIGNOFF SPSSX-LFor a list of commands to manage
> subscriptions, send the commandINFO REFCARD  
>
> =====================
> To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to

> LISTSERV@.UGA

>  (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
> command. To leave the list, send the command
> SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
> For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
> INFO REFCARD





-----
--
Bruce Weaver
[hidden email]
http://sites.google.com/a/lakeheadu.ca/bweaver/

"When all else fails, RTFM."

NOTE: My Hotmail account is not monitored regularly.
To send me an e-mail, please use the address shown above.

--
Sent from: http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[Jon Peck]

If you google for "convert scanned image to data" you will find a number of hits that purport to extract data from an image.  I have not tried any of them, however.

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 6:51 AM Bruce Weaver <[hidden email]> wrote:

John sent me one of his PDFs off-list.  To view it, visit this thread in the
Nabble archive, and click on the link for the uploaded PDF.


http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/Conversion-from-printout-to-syntax-td5738017.html

Judging by the nature of the PDF (i.e., an image rather text that can be
selected, copied, etc.), I doubt the methods suggested by Adrian will work. 

Vax_output_(Brent_staff_1990).pdf
<http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/file/t7186/Vax_output_%28Brent_staff_1990%29.pdf> 

HTH.



Adrian Barnett-2 wrote
> Hi John
> The current version of Microsoft Word does a reasonable job of converting
> PDFs into Word format. From there they can be exported as plain text which
> can be edited in your preferred text editor for any necessary cleanups.
> There are a couple of reviews below of freeware PDF editors if Word
> botches the job or you don't have access to a version that is recent
> enough:  You will need to find one that allows exporting as plain text.
>
> https://www.techradar.com/au/news/the-best-free-pdf-editor
>
> Edit PDFs for free with these great tools
>
> |
> |
> |
> |  |  |
>
>  |
>
>  |
> |
> |  |
> Edit PDFs for free with these great tools
>
> Roland Waddilove
>
> We've rounded up the very best PDF editors which will cost you nothing at
> all.
>  |
>
>  |
>
>  |
>
>
>
> I hope something in the above will do the job without driving you round
> the bed :-)
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Adrian
> --
> Adrian Barnett        | "It's always the trombone player"
>                       | (Faye Dunaway in 'The Arrangement')
> Email:

> adrianbarnett1@.com

> 
>
>     On Wednesday, 5 June 2019, 5:29:57 pm ACST, John F Hall &lt;

> johnfhall@

> &gt; wrote: 
> 
> 

> The Polytechnic of North London was funded as a teaching institution, not
> research.  Consequently some research projects prior to 1986 (especially
> individual and group projects by students) were routinely wiped from the
> disk on the main computer.  From 1987 onwards I avoided this problem by
> including such projects in my research unit disk allocation.  
>
>   
>
> I still have *.dat and *.sps (data list) files for some of these, and can
> restore the *.sys files as *.sav, but some *.sps files with variable and
> value labels are lost.  However, I have just discovered some (Vax cluster)
> printer output which contains listings of raw data (in 80-column records)
> and SPSS setup syntax.  Does anyone know of any software which could read
> pdf scans of the output and convert them to raw data in *.txt files or to
> Notepad, Word for reading into *.sps files or even converting direct to
> SPSS syntax?
>
>   
>
> I'll wait for this to appear on Nabble and post examples in pdf format.
>
>   
>
> John F Hall  MA (Cantab) Dip Ed (Dunelm)
>
> [Retired academic survey researcher]
>
>   
>
> Email:         

> johnfhall@

> 
>
> Website:     Journeys in Survey Research
>
> Course:       Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
>
> Research:   Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
>
>   
>  =====================To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a
> message

> toLISTSERV@.UGA

>  (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except thecommand. To leave the list,
> send the commandSIGNOFF SPSSX-LFor a list of commands to manage
> subscriptions, send the commandINFO REFCARD 
>
> =====================
> To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to

> LISTSERV@.UGA

>  (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
> command. To leave the list, send the command
> SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
> For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
> INFO REFCARD





-----
--
Bruce Weaver
[hidden email]
http://sites.google.com/a/lakeheadu.ca/bweaver/

"When all else fails, RTFM."

NOTE: My Hotmail account is not monitored regularly.
To send me an e-mail, please use the address shown above.

--
Sent from: http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

--
===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD