Thread: I got a Locked PDF, HOW can I do the WORD COUNT & export?

Some freelance translators deal constantly with a problem.

The client doesn't know squat about squat, and sends them one or a bunch of PDF's to translate that are for some reason LOCKED!

This is an attempt to bring knowledge as to how to deal with this in a quick way, without having to lose time, sending, explaining and the back and forth with the client.

One way! for the common lock of adobe pdfs is to open the file with a secondary PDF Viewer software:
For example:

• Foxit Reader
• SumatraPDF
• CutePDF
• OKULAR

And from there with the document opened up PRINT it AS a PDF.

This works only for the word count and the word translate.

And you may also need to run it through a OCR Character recognizing software if it has text embedded in images.

But it works well so far with most of the request that land on my email.

What do you do when you have a locked pdf?

About web services that do this online, I find it sometimes a little unsafe.

Maybe if you're dealing with a client that for security reasons doesn't want the file be used in such service you can also go with offline software.

A good, and somewhat safe, online converter, not only for PDF's, is: https://www.zamzar.com/

Which it's paid service let's you do conversion on bulk.

But coming back to offline services I will try to use some PDF viewer and PDF Printer on Windows to see if one of those work, and get back to y'all with some updates!

Originally Posted by gentle

I got to the point of printing and scanning a short PDF (like a 3 or 4-page long brochure) and then converting the scanned copy.

A friend of mine that edits manuals and written protocols used this technique:

If you would like to permanently unlock the PDF file and remove all printing related restrictions, follow these steps:

1. Upload the PDF file to Google Drive and double-click to open the file.
2. Click the Print icon inside the Drive Previewer and the print window will pop-up.
3. Press the Cancel button to close the print window and click the Down arrow to download the PDF file from Drive to your desktop.

The downloaded file is unlocked and all the print restrictions have been removed.

After that he opened the file with one of the aforementioned and voila! he could print it with PDF printer. And sometimes it was unlocked for good to print and wordcount.

UPDATE!

Just so you don't go through ALL the hassle I went through just to get empty handed.

If the PDF is either locked for viewing and HAS to be opened with a password to even get a preview, it's locked for good.

Being locked from preview and having a password-to-open kind of file usually means the file in ENCRYPTED (like the virus that got out a few years ago the infamous Crypto-locker or the WannaCry etc etc)
If the file is Encrypted that means it's scrambled.

What can I do if the client or I forgot the password?

* 1 - Absolutely nothing.
* 2 - Spend large amounts of time or money or both to find the password through a brute-force method. (NOT-RECOMMENDABLE)