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Document Icon 1. Introduction
Document Icon 2. Source data
Current Document Icon 3. Copied data
Document Icon 4. Analysing process data
Document Icon 5. Forming the expression
Document Icon 6. Extending the expression
Document Icon 7. Completing processing
Document Icon 8. Conclusion

The Copied Data

Having copied the data out of the Acrobat .pdf file we can now paste it, into Osmium as text. In Osmium we create a new text document with Ctrl +N,and paste the clipboard data into the new document with Ctrl + V.

A text file containing tabular spreadsheet data

As you can see the situation is not bad, but it's not ideal either. Fortunately it seems that the conversion from the original spreadsheet (the one we don't have) to .pdf, has maintained the order of the numeric and text data in the cells. It has not, however, maintained the header information in a logical form. By comparing with the original .pdf, we can see that some of the column headers from the top have been inserted at the bottom. This has occured because the original cells for this data were "merged cells". Fortunately, this data only occurs once in the document. Unlike the potential 150 rows of data, it's not too much trouble to transfer this data manually.

The column headers and footers we simply strip out, of our copied text data, leaving us with the following;

1 Richard Pinkett MG TA 00 76.52 74.73 73.56 72.92 1000 1000 74.69 75.23 72.92 74.69 147.61 5 131
2 Ian Anderson BL Mini GT 00 1000 67.36 66.09 64.88 68.15 67.69 67.46 67.33 64.88 67.33 132.21 4 129
3 Rob Choules Suzuki Swift Gti 00 1000 61.69 61.85 61.44 64.07 61.36 62.87 61.85 61.44 61.85 123.29 2 120
4 James Tapner Peugeot 106 Rallye 00 1000 60.66 59.43 59.26 63.6 62.14 63.34 61.81 59.26 61.81 121.07 1 116
5 Andy Thomas Rover Metro Gti 00 64.93 63.68 63.32 63.32 66.36 65.6 65.53 65.4 63.32 65.4 128.72 3 126
10 Stephen Biggs VW Golf Gti 01 65.23 66.26 62.38 60.45 64.18 64.33 65.13 71.68 60.45 65.13 125.58 6 125
11 Dave Penycate Volkswagen Golf Gti 01 61.68 61.09 61.98 61.26 65.75 64.86 64.62 62.89 61.26 62.89 124.15 5 122
12 Andrew Till MG ZR160 01 55.51 55.09 56.86 54.83 60.21 58.6 57.78 57.47 54.83 57.47 112.3 2 85
14 Jeremy Parker Honda S2000 01 52.82 51.19 51.27 51.84 57.17 57.37 56.77 55.97 51.27 55.97 107.24 1 55
15 Vicki Lawrence Nissan Sunny Gti 01 58.31 56.45 57.17 57.84 63.29 61.14 60.47 60.37 57.17 60.37 117.54 3 108
16 Peter Lawrence Nissan Sunny Gti 01 59.78 59.78 59.07 59.59 61.42 62.27 61.4 61.62 59.07 61.4 120.47 4 113
21 Tim Cole Mini Cooper 02 55.43 54.45 54.23 53.76 57.05 56.25 55.83 55.91 53.76 55.83 109.59 1 68
22 Nigel Patten Renault 8 Gordini 02 66.03 63.35 62.2 61.38 65.2 63.35 63.66 63.23 61.38 63.23 124.61 2 123
29 Lee Whittaker Subaru Impreza 05 55.47 52.99 52.08 52.85 56.05 55.18 55.19 54.23 52.08 54.23 106.31 3 53
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Last modified: SolFlu  Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:25:54 GMT