Google Drive has a feature which will convert a PDF document to a text file. The conversion is not always clean and perfect, but it is often better than retyping a lengthy document.
1. To convert a document, open Google Drive and select the upload button on the left.
Choose "Files.." from the resulting menu. Navigate to the file you would like to convert, and select "Open." A menu similar to the menu below may appear asking you to confirm your upload settings. If the menu appears, skip to section 3. To get the menu to appear, see section 2.
2. If the Upload Settings menu does not appear automatically when you upload a file to Drive, a) click on the settings button in your Drive menubar (the gear on the right), b) hover your mouse over "Upload Settings" in the resulting menu, and c) click on "Convert Text from Uploaded PDF and Image Files." You can also d) click "Confirm Settings Before Each Upload" to have the menu appear automatically when you upload documents.
3. In the "Upload Settings " menu, check "Convert Text from Uploaded PDF and Image Files to Google documents," and then click "Start Upload." The document with then upload and convert to a Google Doc.
4. For each page of the original file, the resulting doc will have an image of one page, and then the text converted from that page. For example, this screenshot shows the image of the original document:
Th shot below shows the converted text. Note that the original format is lost, for the most part. Difficult-to-read photocopies or special characters may result in a garbled conversion. Use the image of the original file to edit and format the text in your new document. Once the text is adjusted, select the image of the original file and delete it. Note that you will have to do this for each page of the original file.
Updated: 10/2014
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