Comparing PDF's

[Texan]

I'm trying to compare two PDF files and I am seeing the the following errors:

"Conversion Error 8/19/2008 2:08:26 PM 2,589,845 bytes PDF Documents ANSI"
Conversion error (shows: date, time, file size,) PDF Documents - ANSI

Also
The system cannot find the file specified <-- at the bottom of the screen.

Am I missing something that it won't compare these files. I've downloaded and imported all the Add-ins I need.

Has anyone seen this? There is an attached .JPG to show what I am talking about.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Is it related to the length of your file names?

[Texan]

Is there a limitation to how long a file name can be? Because if that is the reason that might be the problem.

[Chris]

When comparing PDF files, Beyond Compare 3 doesn't support paths longer than the Windows MAX_PATH, which should be 260 characters. This is because PDF comparison uses an external conversion program to generate text from PDF files, and it doesn't support paths over 260 characters.

Copy and comparison of files in the Folder Compare and comparison of plain text files in the Text Compare does support paths longer than 260 characters.

[sjjung]

pdf compare requires freeware converter, Xpdf. You can download it from:
http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

1. Find and download windows-precompiled binary.
(ftp://ftp.foolabs.com/pub/xpdf/xpdf-3.02pl2-win32.zip)
2. Extract it to the directory that you want
3. Add the path of your directory to the environment variable, 'PATH'
4. Relaunch beyond compare.

[Chris]

Texan contacted me by email and we figured out a solution to the problem.

BC3 does have a limitation of only supporting paths up to MAX_PATH for files compared with external conversion utilities.

However, on Texan's computer, the path to the external conversion utility was wrong, which caused the "The system cannot find the file specified" error message.

The solution:
Select Tools > File Formats.
Select the PDF Documents format.
Go to the Conversion tab.
Under Conversion, set the "Loading:" command to:
Helpers\PdfToText.exe -layout -nopgbrk %s %t

On Texan's computer we used the full path: "C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 3\Helpers\PdfToText.exe" -layout -nopgbrk %s %t

On most systems, a relative path (starting with Helpers\) should work correctly.

[mikeakin]

Ok, this helped me. I have version 3.0.9 and had to update this manually.

[Arkariann]

I'm getting the same issue with beyond compare 4. How can I resolve this issue? It uses the built in converter.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Is it a Conversion Error, or a Conversion Error with additional text at the bottom where The system cannot find the file specified?

Which OS are you running, and are you running the latest BC4.1? Using the Help menu -> about, is it 32bit or 64bit?

[[email protected]]

Hi, I am also getting this conversion error ..
* running BC4 32-bit Version 4.1.3 (build 20814) on Win-XP SP3 (yes, I'm due an upgrade (:^)),
* trying to compare two PDFs with < 100 characters in each of their absolute filepaths,
* with BC4 conversion setting :
>> Tools >> File Formats >> PDF Documents >> Conversion >> "Loading:" >> <built-in> {{greyed-out}}

However, while checking the above I noticed that
>> Tools >> File Formats >> PDF Documents >> General >> Description
includes the comment :
- Can't convert PDF documents which disallow copying text.

My PDF files have security settings as follows :
File >> Properties >> Security ...
(among others)
>> Content Copying : Allowed
>> Content Copying for Accessibility : Allowed
>> Page Extraction : Not Allowed
in case this helps ?

Thanks for any helpful suggestions,
Peter Stewart

[Aaron]

Hello,

Are you able to email in a PDF sample files? Please include a link to this forum thread for our reference, and our email is [email protected]

If not, are you able to select text data, Copy, and Paste it into Notepad?
Outside of BC4, are you able to use Adobe Reader's File menu -> Save as, Plain Text?