Piles of Typed Manuscripts

PDF to MS Word – the OCR Dilemma
Here’s where it gets tricky. PDF is technically an image format, so turning it into editable text (a doc or docx file) is like cramming the square peg into a round hole. Because software for OCR (optical character recognition) costs a lot of money.

But happily shareware developers are coming up with cheaper solutions. In Windows, there are a variety of options. But for your MacBook Pro, running OS X, the pickin’s are slimmer. There’s an application called PDF OCR. I haven’t used it, but at $29.95 it’s certainly worth a try. Also: a web based service called PDF Converter with have various membership levels. Try out their $9/mo. level–you can cancel at any time.

For the Rich
I’ll mention, for the record, a couple of “Cadillac” OCR mentions. One is Adobe Acrobat (not Adobe Reader, mind you). It’ll cost you $449 (ouch!). The other is Final Draft.

For Playwrights
Final Draft can take over and do an excellent draft of giving you a formatted Final Draft file (.fdr) that you can “Save As” a Word doc or docx–keeping the original FD formatting. That’s pretty slick, and almost effortless–assuming you already own Final Draft or have $249 to drop.

The Winner
Probably the best solution of all, if you don’t mind learning how to use it, is OmniPage Pro X, even pricier, for the Mac, at $499. For Windows, Omnipage comes in the usual array of cheaper versions–from $49 to $149 and up–but even with the Windows limitation, Omnipage gets my vote for the software of choice. You’ll either have to own a Windows computer, know someone who does, or have Windows installed on a partition of your Mac’s hard drive, but compared to coughing up $449, the extra trouble may be worth it.

Background Note for Info Nerds
OCR, being a form of object recognition, is one of the toughest challenges a computer can face. The slightest typographical irregularity can make a scan spin off into irregularity–old newsprint is an absolute nightmare. This is why you should try to start with a totally clean print job (use a lazer printer, if possible) and a non-Seraph font.

Happily, the folks at Google, who want to digitize every text on the face of the earth, are deeply into research on this as we sleep, so you can expect OCR to improve noticeably over the next few years.

For playwrights using Final Draft, the key is getting a good PDF file. At that point, Final Draft can take over and do an excellent draft of giving you a formatted Final Draft file (.fdr). Once you have that, you can “Save As” a Word doc or docx–and keep the formatting. That’s another ideal solution–assuming you have $249 to drop on Final Draft.

If your desktop (physically and digitally) exists in a constant and eternal state of slovenliness, don’t despair, there’s a way out. Several, actually, but I’m going to spotlight the best two: Scrivener (Mac only) and Page Four (Windows only).

Scrivener is the one I’m familiar with (and use) because I do everything on either on old Macbook or newer iMac. But I have no problem suggesting Page Four because it’s wholeheartedly recommended by the Scrivener folks.

In both cases, these virtual writing project organizers have been designed BY writers, FOR writers.

Scrivener is amazing. You can squirrel away almost any type of file in its “Research” area–snippets of text, emails, website URLs, PDF documents, images, etc. See something you want to keep? Just select and drag it in. You’ll always know where it is, because it will always be in the same place–along with everything else in that particular project. And you’ll always be able to open it without leaving Scrivener–even if it’s a website. The files are copies of the originals, or course, so your back is always covered.

Your research is right at your elbow. Want to start a new chapter? You can plot it out with index cards in the cork board view (see above). Or use the outline view. Or switch back and forth.

When you’re ready, start typing your chapter in the “Draft” section–a new file automatically opens for it.

Want to export to Microsoft Word (or whatever word processing program you use)? Not a problem. I could go on, but you’ll learn more by going directly to “Literature and Latte” the home of Scrivener.

And Windows users, if you’re feeling a little left out of this little Scrivener love feast (isn’t that a strange feeling for you!) just click over to Page Four for what I’m sure is the equivalent experience.

Both Scrivener and Page 4 are bargain priced. Scrivener costs $39.95, Page Four, $34.95. Not bad for double or triple your productivity as a fiction writer.