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SHARE WITH US! FACEBOOK : facebook.com/maclife TWITTER: twitter.com/maclifeProblems getting your
MacBook Pro battery
replaced? Let us know
at [email protected]Image rights from top: Adobe, iFixit.com.
You explained the Unicode/Codepage issue that underlies
the challenge of text extraction from some PDF
documents, but your recommended solution (contact the
author for the original word–processor document) is not
the best or necessarily the easiest solution, particularly for an older
document for which contacting the author may present a huge challenge.
The obvious thing to do in this circumstance is to replace the hidden OCR
layer with a new one and re–run the OCR. Most PDF editors have this
fdsdelolw|#exw#rļhu#rqo|#uxglphqwdu|#srvwĞuhfrjqlwlrq#hglwlqj#ru#olplwhg#
pxowlĞodqjxdjh#vshflĽfdwlrq#+|rxu#fruuhvsrqghqw#zdv#ghdolqj#zlwk#d#SGI#
in both Polish and English). ABBYY FineReader on the Mac allows for OCR of
a document in several languages and has high–quality recognition; but it
does not, unlike its Windows version, permit the user to edit the OCR layer.
LqĽ{#rq#wkh#Pdf#grhv/#exw#qrw#dv#frqyhqlhqwo|#dv#IlqhUhdghu#xqghu#Zlqgrzv
In dealing with problematic PDFs, the very best solution is to export the
sdjh#lpdjhv#+wklv#rļhuv#wkh#srvvlelolw|#ri#frqyhuwlqj#57Ğelw#ixooĞfroru#
images to 8–bit grayscale), use an image editor to deskew and clean up the
page images, and then generate a new PDF from the page images. I do this
doo#wkh#wlph#zlwk#vflhqwlĽf#olwhudwxuh/#wr#jhqhudwh#dufklydoĞtxdolw|#SGIv#zlwk#
essentially 100% error–free OCR ... in whatever languages the document
contains. STEPHEN M SMITHIt’s a good answer, but to the wrong question! The original question says: “I’ve
downloaded a thesis, written in a mixture of Polish and English, in PDF which
wasn’t scanned in as page images, so its contents should be fully accessible.
Zk|#fdqġw#Suhylhz#ru#Vsrwoljkw#Ľqg#dq|#xvhixo#wh{w#lq#lwBĤ
Wkh#nh|#wh{w#khuh#lv=#ģlq#SGI#zklfk#zdvqġw#vfdqqhg#lq#dv#sdjh#lpdjhvĤ1#Wkh#
answer suggested by Stephen assumes the opposite, that it was scanned in as
sdjh#lpdjhv/#zklfk#lv#d#frpsohwho|#glļhuhqw#sureohp
Yes, if you’re working with scanned images, then re–OCRing can be a magic
solution. But if you’re dealing with old codepages and no page images, you’re
still in trouble, unfortunately.Battery bafflement
I have received a recall notice
to have the battery in my
MacBook Pro replaced. At first
I was very impressed that Apple
was offering to replace the
battery free of charge. I thought
all I would have to do was
arrange to take it into one of
their stores or my local dealer
and wait an hour or so to have
everything done.On reading Apple’s
instructions and talking to my
local dealer, I realized the
process was unfortunately not
as straightforward as I had
hoped. No, I had to take my
MacBook to an Apple store or
dealership for initial tests, then
they would send it thousands of
miles away for the battery to be
replaced. My local dealer
thought the whole processwould take somewhere between
two to three weeks, certainly
much longer than Apple was
suggesting!
In preparation for this the
owner has to back up the
device, but what about sensitive
information held on the device
or accessed via services such as
iCloud? The information from
Apple I saw gave no mention of
this. I question who would trust
this extended service chain with
access to their sensitive data or
accounts? All I can see is a lot of
hassle for me, potential security
issues, and an unacceptable
period of time without a device
I use daily.
I’m sure there are already
a few theories as to why Apple
have chosen this process, some
probably quite cynical. To me,
this comes across as an “Apple
first, customer second”
approach. Now I’m not
impressed and, as I suspect like
many others, I’m probably not
going to take up their offer. I’ll
wash my mouth out, but maybe
that’s what they wanted!
ALAN BURMANSorry to hear this, Alan. We
have reached out to Apple for
a response and will let you
know what it has to say about
it. Have any other readers
been affected by this issue?
Let us know at letters@
maclife.com.maclife.com DEC 2019 13Your opinions, rants & raves