Able2Extract 5.0 Professional

Introduction
About Able2Extract
Download and Installation
Using Able2Extract
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

How many times have you converted your PowerPoint, Word, or Excel document to a PDF and have lost the original? Or, you may have created the PDF from a non-Microsoft Office source but now need it as a PowerPoint presentation. Or maybe you were sent a PDF and are expected to create an exact Word document from it, right down to the spacing, layout, and fonts.

Able2Extract, our review product lets you transfer native PDFs to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

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About Able2Extract

Able2Extract is from Investintech.com Inc, a software development company based in Toronto, Canada. You can learn more about Able2extract and download the trial version from their site.

There are two versions on Able2Extract, Standard and Professional. For this review we are using the Professional version. Read the comparison between the Standard and Pro versions of Able2Extract at their site.

My contact at Investintech.com for this review was Keith Bradbury, thank you, Keith.

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Download and Installation

Download the installer from the link given above, run the setup routine and follow the instructions. You'll end up with an Able2Extract program group in your Windows Start menu, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Able2Extract Start menu group

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Using Able2Extract

Follow these steps to convert a PDF file to a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Go to your Windows Start menu and choose All Programs | Able2Extract | Able2Extract Professional, as shown in Figure 1, above.
2. Doing so launches the Able2Extract interface as shown in Figure 2, below. Choose the Open Document option from the toolbar.
3. 
   Figure 2: Open PDF File
3. This step summons the dialog box that you can see in Figure 3, below. Navigate and select a PDF that you want to convert. Then, click the Open button.
4. 
   Figure 3: Open a PDF
4. Doing so opens the PDF file within the Able2Extract interface. Now, you need to select the data in your PDF before converting. There are two selection options available:
1. Mouse Based Selection: Left-click your cursor beginning at the position from which you want to select text. Click and drag the cursor over the content you want to select.
2. Selection Menu Options: Access the Edit menu to see various selection options as shown in Figure 4, below.
3. 
   Figure 4: Select options
4. Select Page Range: Use this to select certain pages of the document.
   Selects All Pages: This option selects all the pages in the document.
   Selects All on Page: Use this option to select all the content on the active page.
5. Once you have made a selection, choose File | Convert to PowerPoint, as shown in Figure 5, below, and provide an output file name and location when prompted.
6. 
   Figure 5: Convert to PowerPoint
6. The conversion process will now start. The process can take a while based on the complexity and size of the original PDF.

The resulting PowerPoint slides from our test PDF looked just like the original pages, but none of the headlines or bulleted text converted to text placeholders that you can normally find within PowerPoint's outline pane. In fact, multiple bullets are converted into individual text boxes. Also, pictures within slides did not convert to individual pictures. Instead, we ended up with flat slide backgrounds that included the pictures.

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Pricing and Support

Able2Extract Professional is only available as a 30-day subscription license that costs $34.95. The full version costs 129.95 for a single-user license (download only). Multiple user licenses are available.

Support is by e-mail and phone.

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Conclusion

Able2Extract is a capable product that can help you if you need to create all sorts of Microsoft Office documents from PDFs of all sorts.

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