TJ Kelly

Extract PDF Text with Google Drive

1. Enable PDF-to-text conversion in Google Drive.

You’ll have to enable this setting before we get started. Like most, this setting is under the gear icon at top-right:

Enable PDF-to-text conversion in Google Drive, via PlanetPDF.com.
Via PlanetPDF.com

Once that setting is configured, Google Drive will start converting PDFs to text for you automatically.

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2. Upload your PDF to Google Drive.

End of step.

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3. Open with Google Docs

Right-click on the PDF file you just uploaded and choose Open with. Since you enabled conversion in step 1, you should have a Google Docs option under Open with.

Extract PDF Text with Google Drive.

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4. Don’t be fooled

In some cases, the first think you’ll see when the PDF-converted-to-text version opens in a new Google Docs screen is what looks like the old PDF all over again. Sometimes Google converts some of the PDF content to images. In my case, I saw this and thought I had failed. Turns out I just needed to scroll down

PDF to text with Google Drive.

Here’s what page 2 of my newly-converted text file looked like:

Screenshot of a PDF converted to text with Google Drive.

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5. Download converted-PDF text file

If you’re into that sort of thing, you can download a plain text or rich text version of the newly-converted file.

Download a PDF converted to text with Google Drive.

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6. Profit

Happy converting.

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