Is it possible to automate running PDFelement using command line - windows

I am currently trying to parse some PDF with tables to formats like csv/excel so that I can then programmatically process them with python, etc.
I have found that PDFElement does a good job converting PDF to excel, but have only been doing conversions manually via the GUI.
I'm hoping to be able to automate the process of batch converting PDF to excel using a program and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to best achieve this.
My initial instinct was to try to run the program .exe from command prompt using some arguments. However, based on their support page, it doesn't look like this functionality is supported.
Is there a way around this? Or should I resort to some sort of automated clicking script? Thanks!

PDFelement cannot be used from the command line. Their software provides a GUI and there is no way to automate tasks. I've spoken with their support.

Related

how to integrate a software to run from another?

I am working on a project and I am using a closed software package. In this software I browse for images on my computer and run the program and it executes. What I want to do is create a matlab gui where I browse the images from matlab itself and make a push button that executes the software.
what kind of files do I need to work on in order to be able to integrate the function of a certain feature in a program to run from another one?
Your question can be divided into 2 parts.
1. How to run external program from Matlab?
To do that, you need first find out how to run your program using cmd. Once you know that, you can create a string with system commands in Matlab, that you can pass to cmd using system. Learn the arguments and syntax that you need to following during the system call. Wrap the whole routine into a function to be further used in GUI.
2. How to embed my program into GUI?
Consult the guide on Mathworks website. All you need to do is to instruct Matlab to run your function from previous part using the user-set arguments.
The rest is technicalities and you might need to ask more specific questions in future.

Write a windows script

I would like write a script to automate a certain task on windows.
I use a monitor to extend the screen of my laptop but every time I remove the plug and reconnect the monitor I have to go on to desktop properties and display settings to extend the monitor and set the resolution.
Well I assume on LINUX you can do this by using shell scripting but I am not sure how to do this in windows.
From my research on the internet I have found that BASH scripts could be used to do this task automatically.
Please guys I don't need a software to do this I would like to write the script myself so that I can learn something as well.
I have read up on bash scripting but I cant find methods to access windows components and just to let you know I am an intermediate JAVA programmer. I guess I could use JAVA as well.
I hope my questions are clear.
Thank You
Bash scripting is for *nix systems, the equivalent on windows is Batch Scripting.
Some quick googling indicates that this can be done through registry edits, but they would not take effect until the next reboot.
Other than that, it doesnt look like doing that through batch scripting is possible.
If you want to look at another programming language to do this, check out this answer

Scripting in Windows to create excel sheets

I have a txt file that contains data which I need to input to Excel.
The problem is I have several of those files and I want to create an excel file for each. So I was thinking of scripting.
Can anyone point me to how to start atleast the tool needed and language to use
Thanks
EDIT: turns out naming the extension .csv can directly open it in excel. Now looking on how to open .csv , change format to autofit width and then save to excel
Why don't you just write CSV files... They open on Excel and require no effort.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values
Of course. I have happen to enjoy php a lot for this type of task, but most any other scripting language is capable of this. Ie: Python, Ruby .. and many more.
PHP comes with many built-in functions for CSV. It also runs fine on windows, is cross-platform if you ever need to port on a 'nux environnement. The language is quite easy to learn, there are tons and tons of tutorials out there for most anything you want to script.
To get started, if you want to crack the ice there is a very simple but working example here, with links to more php/excel ressources. OF course, if you take this path, there are many many more examples waiting for you on google.
Hope that helps, good-luck!

Does AppleScript have image recognition like AutoIt or AutoHotkey

In AutoHotkey and AutoIt the script is able to recognize images on webpages. Can AppleScript do that? How?
Short answer... no. Applescript is a tool for controlling other applications. It doesn't have a lot of capabilities itself. It's power is that you can combine the power of other applications into one script. As such you'd have to find a separate application that does the image stuff, then you can use applescript to automate that application.
You might want to look at this program. I watched the demo, it looks really interesting, and it may do what you want. I've never used it personally.
The easiest way to do this is unfortunately to use Applescript to get the source for the current browser page. You can then scan the text to recognize the image. As a language though Applescript isn't ideal for this. I'd suggest using Appscript + Python or Appscript + Ruby. Ruby and Python simply have far superior text mining libraries. Combining them with Appscript makes this sort of work pretty easy.

Where can I find a graphical command shell?

Terminals and shells are very powerful but can be complicated to learn, especially to get the best out of them. Does anyone know of a more GUI based command shell that helps a user or displays answers in a more friendly way? I'm aware of IPython, but even the syntax of that is somewhat convoluted, although it's a step in the right direction.
Further to this, results could be presented graphically, e.g. wouldn't it be nice to be able to pipe file sizes into a pie chart?
Hotwire is an attempt to combine the power of the traditional command line interface with GUI elements. So it has a GUI side, and tries to be helpful in suggesting commands, and in showing you possible matches from your history. (While there are keyboard shortcuts to do this in bash and other shells, you have to know them ...)
You can use all your common system commands, but a number of key ones have new versions by default which use an object pipeline, and are displayed with a nice GUI view. In particular ls (aka dir) shows lists files and shows them in columns. You can sort by clicking on the column headers, double click on files to open, or double click on directories to move to that directory. The proc command allows you to right click on a process and one of the options is to kill it.
The object pipeline works in a similar way to Microsoft Powershell, allowing commands in the pipe to access object properties directly rather than having to do text processing to extract it.
Hotwire is cross platform (Linux, BSD, Windows, Mac), though it is at an early stage of development. To learn more, install (click on the link for your platform) and work through the simple getting started page.
If you don't like hotwire, you could also look at the list of related projects and ideas maintained on the hotwire wiki.
fish is a Unix shell that focuses on user-friendliness, such as by providing colored highlighting and extensive tab completion.
For a different kind of blend of textual and graphical interface, there's Quicksilver, as well as similar/inspired tools like Launchy, GNOME Do and ENSO.
Is this for Python in particular, or are you just interested in any command shell that has a GUI interface?
If the idea of piping file sizes into a pie chart interests you, you might try PowerGUI, a GUI layer on Microsoft's PowerShell command shell. PowerShell also lets you pipe data from commands into XML, CSV, and other formats that are understood by GUI programs.
GUI-based command shell seems like an oxymoron to me.
Not really? A command shell is just an encapsulated environment in which to execute commands. Why can't they have GUI extensions? We are in the 21st century! :)
Check out http://hotwire-shell.org/
This is along the lines of what I was thinking. It's a shame it uses PyGTK, I'd have preferred PyQT (perhaps a licensing issue?). There look to be some interesting related links from the project as well.
If the idea of piping file sizes into a pie chart interests you, you might try PowerGUI, a GUI layer on [...]
PowerGUI looks like a hobby project I've been working on that organises regularly used tasks. It looks like it organises frequent jobs and formats the output for you. The formatting I see as the end result of the data flow. But it would be nice to be able to tinker with data and then continue to use it.
PowerShell as a command shell is very forgiving for new users and is easy to learn. There is an add-on product (it is a commercial product) called PowerGadgets that would let you pipe file sizes into a pie chart or other types of displays
PowerGadgets looks very interesting. It would be interesting to have things like system monitors so that you could say, read the CPU usage per second and pipe it into a graph.
Is this for Python in particular, or are you just interested in any command shell that has a GUI interface?
Any really, currently, but I like the idea of cross platform, easy to edit, no compiler setup. I use Windows at work and Windows/Linux (Ubuntu)/OSX at home. Python is just an easy solution, and for writing stuff like this is has a lot of libraries already.
Thanks for all the links. Keep them coming. :)
I'm not sure whether you're asking for a shell as in bash/csh, or a shell as in ipython. If it's the later, then I'd recommend looking at Reinteract. While it's still very alpha, it's already a great tool for rapid prototyping in python, and allows embedding of plots, widgets, etc.
GUI-based command shell seems like an oxymoron to me.
The key-word here is Graphical.
If I want a GUI, I want a full-featured GUI. But if I want raw performance, I want a command line.
I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for. You can either have a GUI or a command line. What do you need from a graphical command shell that you couldn't get from a straight GUI?
Also, if you want graphical information about file sizes there are a few applications that do that. One example is WinDirStat.
Also not related to Python, but Ubiquity (a firefox extension) is a graphical command-line-like tool for the web, with a similar spirit to Quicksilver/Launchy/GnomeDo.
I know that Automator in Mac OS X is not a shell but it is the best graphical tool I have ever used to do batch tasks. I think it is worth mentioning here as even I (self-titled as a power user) use it from time to time to rename files or other routines. Although these could be done in a few lines of shell script, the Automator's graphical interface makes me feel like I am not working and it just works.
Check out http://hotwire-shell.org/
PowerShell V2 is developing a graphical command shell, but I don't think that is what you are looking for.
PowerShell as a command shell is very forgiving for new users and is easy to learn. There is an add-on product (it is a commercial product) called PowerGadgets that would let you pipe file sizes into a pie chart or other types of displays. Information about that can be found here.
As for ease of use, PowerShell command follow a Verb-Noun pattern (along with aliases for ease of use from the command line) and is very discoverable. Check out some screencasts I did on using PowerShell at PowerShell Basics.
I found POSH, a GUI for MS PowerShell. This is pretty much what I intended. You have a command-line backend with a WPF GUI frontend. You can pipe results from command to the next and show graphical output.
Maxima provides a mathematical shell (screens) . It is nice that you type in a C-like syntax and receive graphically formatted output.

Resources