Export Requirements from PDF

How can I export Requirements which are in PDF files..??????????
Nare - Tue May 10 08:31:50 EDT 2011

Re: Export Requirements from PDF
PDU - Tue May 10 12:49:34 EDT 2011

Hi,

no good solution.
  • save PDF file as text file (if possible)
  • copy/paste from PDF, requirement by requirement, into DOORS objects (if possible, not possible if protected)
  • scan and use OCR tool

the only good solution, ask for original file.

Pierre

Re: Export Requirements from PDF
SystemAdmin - Tue May 10 23:58:44 EDT 2011

Applications like Adobe Acrobat have export options for PDF to TXT, DOC and RTF amongst other formats like XML. However the exported copy will not be formatted using exactly the same styles that were used in the original source file.

The DOORS MSWord importer relies on a little known Parapraph level property named "outline level". This is used by DOORS to determine whether a paragraph will be imported as a heading object at a specific level or as an ordinary text object. Every MSWord style has this property set to a value e.g the "Heading 1" style has "outline level" set to 1, and the "Normal" style is set to "Body Text".

What I'm edging towards here is that even though you can export a PDF into a TXT, DOC or RTF format, you will need to fix up the "outline level" value of each para so that Headings are imported as heading objects and so on. Can be tedious work and will test your sanity and undying love for DOORS :-) (did I hear someone cough?)

As PDU stated - it's usually a lot easier if you can get your hands on the source MSWord file.
Paul Miller
Melbourne, Australia