Tips for Using PDF Text for Study and Reports
Key points
- Reread and tidy extracted text before using it
- Always give the source when quoting
- Respect the allowed use of the material (copyright)
Workflow
- Extract the material's text with "Extract Text from PDF".
- Paste it into a notes app or document.
- Mark important parts and summarize in your own words.
Tips
- With page markers on, you can later check which page something came from
- For English material, paste the extracted text into a translation app to read it more easily
- Tables and figures may not make sense as plain text, so look at the original PDF too
Notes
- Lecture material is the work of whoever distributed it. Don't hand it around or publish it.
- When quoting in a report, follow citation rules and name the source (title and page).
- Submitting copied text as your own writing can count as misconduct.
Tools that go well with this
- PDF to Images: Save each page of a PDF as a JPEG or PNG image.
- Extract or Delete PDF Pages: Keep only the pages you need, or remove the pages you don't.
- Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF to fit under a size you choose, for upload limits.