.pdf bewilderment

I went to the Alpine Library today to see if it might be a resource in my goal to digitize my 1966 doctoral dissertation, a goal which I have mentioned in earlier posts on this blog. I already know that the Teton Regional Library in Jackson will be of use - it's scanner is very hi-tech in character-recognition software (way better than what I was using back home on my scanner there), and I can go up there and get the job done. BUT, Alpine Library is a lot closer, and I learned on Tuesday that their printer has a scanner function which converts a page into a .pdf file in no time at all. In fact, at Alpine Library,  you can put, e,g, 20 pages in the feeder tray, and it will convert those pages to .pdf files in about 15 seconds - just as long as it takes for those  pages to feed through, which is pretty fast. That is a big advantage over Teton Library, where you have to put one page into the scanner at a time, and then go through a process on the computer. I would say at best, I could do a page every 30 seconds there if I turned myself into sort of a robot, and it probably will be more like a minute a page. So Alpine is about 60 times faster.

HOWEVER, a .pdf file is by definition not an editable file. So it is no use to me if I cannot turn it into an editable file. But I have always thought it was possible to highlight a .pdf file page, click "Copy" and then "Paste" that into a Word document file, and then you could edit that. I confirmed this earlier this morning. I opened a .pdf file of an article I had downloaded off the Internet from JSTOR, and sure enough - I highlighted the first page, copied, pasted, and voila - I had an editable file of that article. So I thought - I should be able to do that with the .pdf files the printer produces at the Alpine Libary.

WRONG. I tried it earlier today. I stored 10 pages of .pdf files  from my dissertation created by the printer on a flash drive and took the drive back to my laptop. No luck. Those .pdf files are like .jpeg files.  They are different from the .pdf files I have on my laptop. They cannot be highlighted and pasted into a Word file, and then edited. They can be copied and pasted, but they are like a picture. That is of no use to me. I tried doing everything I could think of to get them into an editable form, but no luck. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be interested in hearing them. But we plan to go to Jackson tomorrow. Ellen wants to take Max to the Rec. Center to swim, and I'll go to the Teton Library. I probably won't get the whole dissertation done - that would take 300 minutes of uninterrupted labor, which I am not up for. But I can make good progress. I already have done 85 pages, out of a total of 375. I am very excited to be getting back into it, amazed by (1) how good it is, and (2) how frequently it has been cited by other scholars in the 50 years since I wrote it. I keep finding more such scholars. Granted, there have been critics galore, but also many positive citations. I am now thinking of creating a Volume Two, a Companion Volume, in which I would basically bring the 1966 dissertation up to date, summarize the work done on my topic in the past 50 years (to the extent that is humanly possible!), and comment on what I did back in 1966 in the light of what has been done since and especially in light of specific critiques of my work. I'm not sure anyone will be interested in this Companion Volume besides me, but you never know.

Meanwhile, Max has been playing happily with his new-found neighbor  friend, Ephraim, Ellen went to the Alpine Farmer's Market, I've been talking with Paul. Supper soon.