Hi Alex, I am a new user and am specifically interested in the pdf function... When I import a pdf file, weft qda automatically shuts down. This happens even for pdf''s i''ve created. I do not get the error message as stated in the manual even. Pls advise, Thanks, ~Jen. The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.> The purpose is the present. <--------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/weft-qda-users/attachments/20050810/5f3c619c/attachment.htm
Hi Jen Thanks for reporting this bug. I''ve had a chance to look a little further into what the problem might be. I have found a bug where Weft QDA will crash if there is a space in the name of the PDF file or any of the folders that contain it. On windows, this would usually include any files on the desktop or in "My Documents" folders. This bug will be fixed in the next release. Until then, you can work around it by moving the PDF files to a folder/directory without spaces in the name (eg "C:\mypdfs") and renaming the individual files so they don''t have spaces either. Would this explain the problems you''ve found? If not, let me know, and we can try with some sample documents. cheers allex ~J. Ruocco~ wrote:> Hi Alex, > I am a new user and am specifically interested in the pdf function... > When I import a pdf file, weft qda automatically shuts down. > This happens even for pdf''s i''ve created. I do not get the error > message as stated in the manual even. > Pls advise, > Thanks, > ~Jen. > > > /The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground./ > /*> The purpose is the present. <*/ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page > <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=34442/*http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs> > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >_______________________________________________ >Weft-qda-users mailing list >Weft-qda-users@rubyforge.org >http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/weft-qda-users > >
Hi Alex, Ok, that seemed to do the trick! But...no formatting - :( I imported a .pdf that was in an outline format and after importing, all the lines run-together. No worries, that might be asking for too much at this stage! Thanks for the fix! ~Jen. --- Alex Fenton <alex pressure.to> wrote:> Hi Jen > > Thanks for reporting this bug. I''ve had a chance to look a little > further into what the problem might be. I have found a bug where Weft > QDA will crash if there is a space in the name of the PDF file or any of > the folders that contain it. On windows, this would usually include any > files on the desktop or in "My Documents" folders. > > This bug will be fixed in the next release. Until then, you can work > around it by moving the PDF files to a folder/directory without spaces > in the name (eg "C:\mypdfs") and renaming the individual files so they > don''t have spaces either. > > Would this explain the problems you''ve found? If not, let me know, and > we can try with some sample documents. > > cheers > allex > > > > ~J. Ruocco~ wrote: > > > Hi Alex, > > I am a new user and am specifically interested in the pdf function... > > When I import a pdf file, weft qda automatically shuts down. > > This happens even for pdf''s i''ve created. I do not get the error > > message as stated in the manual even. > > Pls advise, > > Thanks, > > ~Jen. > > > > > > /The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground./ > > /*> The purpose is the present. <*/ > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page > > <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=34442/*http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs> > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Weft-qda-users mailing list > >Weft-qda-users@rubyforge.org > >http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/weft-qda-users > > > > > >The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.> The purpose is the present. <____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Hi Jen Glad that solved the immediate problem. You''re right that PDFs are imported as text only. This is because Weft deliberately uses plain text rather than formatted text for storage, coding and display, unlike most recent commercial CAQDAS packages. This makes the application much more straightforward to write and use, but doesn''t help if you want to work with formatted text ;). I personally haven''t ever found much practical use for formatted text in my own analyses, so I''m always interested to learn more about situations where it is desirable. There might be another way around the problem. Incidentally, I''m not aware of any CAQDAS packages that support formatted import from PDFs. You''re also right that the PDF import works best with flowing text (eg journal articles) at the moment, as it can jam lines together in outline formats. I''m hoping that this can be improved in future versions. best wishes alex ~J. Ruocco~ wrote:>Hi Alex, >Ok, that seemed to do the trick! But...no formatting - :( >I imported a .pdf that was in an outline format and after >importing, all the lines run-together. >No worries, that might be asking for too much at this stage! >Thanks for the fix! >~Jen. > >--- Alex Fenton <alex pressure.to> wrote: > > > >>Hi Jen >> >>Thanks for reporting this bug. I''ve had a chance to look a little >>further into what the problem might be. I have found a bug where Weft >>QDA will crash if there is a space in the name of the PDF file or any of >>the folders that contain it. On windows, this would usually include any >>files on the desktop or in "My Documents" folders. >> >>This bug will be fixed in the next release. Until then, you can work >>around it by moving the PDF files to a folder/directory without spaces >>in the name (eg "C:\mypdfs") and renaming the individual files so they >>don''t have spaces either. >> >>Would this explain the problems you''ve found? If not, let me know, and >>we can try with some sample documents. >> >>cheers >>allex >> >>
On 8/15/05, Alex Fenton <alex@pressure.to> wrote:> I personally haven''t ever found much practical use for formatted text in > my own analyses, so I''m always interested to learn more about situations > where it is desirable. There might be another way around the problem.while i am happy with the plain-text-only documents in weft, there are situations where formatted text is indeed desirable, like foreign language words/phrases/sentences in italics. before i switched to weft (and became a zealous convert :), i used ANSWR which accepts plain text as well as RTF (rich text format) files. using a standard word processor, if one saves a document file as RTF then basic formatting is preserved. as far as i know there is no free/open source pdf->rtf conversion, unlike pdf->txt that the weft uses. at the moment i use somewhat standard but low-tech basic formatting in weft text files: slash(/) for italics, asterisk (*) for bold, and underscore (_) for underline. irfan