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When a pdf page is displayed and I copy some text and paste it, lines wrap. How to get the original line lengths?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 37 views
  • Last reply by DonDilworth

DonDilworth
DonDilworth
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I put example input on my website in pdf format. The user can copy and paste that text into an editor to run the examples. But when pasted, the lines wrap in many places, causing format errors when the program tries to interpret them. How can I arrange that the pasted text is exactly the same as in the displayed pdf file?

I put example input on my website in pdf format. The user can copy and paste that text into an editor to run the examples. But when pasted, the lines wrap in many places, causing format errors when the program tries to interpret them. How can I arrange that the pasted text is exactly the same as in the displayed pdf file?

Chosen solution

Copy/paste from the PDF Viewer is broken in many ways, like selection. Many bugs have been open about that on the bug tracker.

If you really need to copy and paste without issue, maybe use a different PDF viewer like Sumatra PDF.

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All Replies (3)

Oxylatium
Oxylatium
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Chosen Solution

Copy/paste from the PDF Viewer is broken in many ways, like selection. Many bugs have been open about that on the bug tracker.

If you really need to copy and paste without issue, maybe use a different PDF viewer like Sumatra PDF.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Some PDFs trigger a message in Firefox that they might not display well in the built-in PDF viewer. I don't know how the viewer determines that, but it would be handy if you could trigger that message, since readers then would be encouraged to download the PDF and view it in their stand-alone viewer (e.g., Adobe Reader). Hmm...

DonDilworth
DonDilworth Question owner
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Very helpful replies, thank you. It seems pdf copy/paste is indeed broken. So I modified my website so the user sees docx files instead of pdf. Those open in Word just fine, and C/P works as well.

So I'm happy.