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If the PDF has renderable text, then using the Select Text selection tool should be able to have you select text for a copy and paste procedure. If there is no renderable text, then you can run an OCR procedure to make any text that the Adobe Acrobat engine can find, selectable for copy and paste. 
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If the PDF has renderable text, then using the Select Text selection tool should be able to have you select text for a copy and paste procedure. If there is no renderable text, then you can run an OCR procedure to make any text that the Adobe Acrobat engine can find, selectable for copy and paste.

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From Adobe Acrobat 9, go to Document &gt;&nbsp;OCR Text Recognition &gt;&nbsp;Recognize Text Using OCR...
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From Adobe Acrobat 9, go to Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR...

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I'm able to select text and copy and paste. &nbsp;But I am not able to select only one column of text. &nbsp;I'm trying to convert the PDF into an excel file. &nbsp;The &quot;copy as table&quot; and &quot;Open table in Spreadsheet&quot; options mangle the data too much to be useful.
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I'm able to select text and copy and paste.  But I am not able to select only one column of text.  I'm trying to convert the PDF into an excel file.  The "copy as table" and "Open table in Spreadsheet" options mangle the data too much to be useful.

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Ah, OK. You can crop (using the Crop tool) the section with the column in question and then perform the selective select. Afterward, you can undo the crop to isolate other column areas in your document to perform the same. 
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Ah, OK. You can crop (using the Crop tool) the section with the column in question and then perform the selective select. Afterward, you can undo the crop to isolate other column areas in your document to perform the same.

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alt key allows you to select blocks of text.
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alt key allows you to select blocks of text.

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Is there a way to select and copy blocks of text from a PDF. &nbsp;I need to copy columns of data at a time.
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Is there a way to select and copy blocks of text from a PDF.  I need to copy columns of data at a time.

Select a block of text in Acrobat Pro 9

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF). The family comprises Acrobat Reader (formerly Adobe Reader), Acrobat (formerly Acrobat Exchange) and Acrobat.com. The commercial proprietary Acrobat, available for Microsoft Windows and OS X only, can also create, edit, convert, digitally sign, encrypt, export and publish PDF files.