Is there a way for me to be able to grab a PDF and somehow parse it and show it via form in Word via a UserForm? For example, I have a form where I can put the link to an online PDF like say www.website.com/file.pdf, and then the UserForm parses that PDF and shows it as plain text on a listbox perhaps? I dont need the code for it but only to know whether this is even remotely possible and if so, a few tips on how I could go about it would be fine.
It’s a long shot I know, and this could not even be possible. But if you guys can help me out on this one then that would be great! Thanks in advance!
PDF’s are difficult to parse. I have a few programs that use Foolabs xpdf (http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/home.html) command line utility. I setup a batch file to convert a specific named file into a textfile. From my vba program I move my desired pdf to the location of the batch file. I trigger the batch file from my vba program using the Shell & Wait command(s). Then I parse the resulting textfile.
batch file looks like this:
Shell and Wait can be found here:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/ShellAndWait.aspx
Tying it all together:
http://vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=977
I’m not sure if this helps in your situation, but its the only thing that I can think of unless you go with trying to read the pdf file directly.