Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Cut and Paste

[SkidAce]

Is it just me, or does everytime you try to cut and paste info you want to use from the UA articles, it comes out one word to a line, and you have to go back and hit del at the end of each line etc etc.

Gee whiz....

 

[GMforPowergamers]

it's there idea of DLC

 

[Cristian Andreu]

Is it just me, or does everytime you try to cut and paste info you want to use from the UA articles, it comes out one word to a line, and you have to go back and hit del at the end of each line etc etc.

Gee whiz....

That's a relatively common problem with pdfs, particularly those created with Mac OS X 10.10.4 Quartz (you can check which version was used to create the pdf by going into the Properties menu. Quick check shows that the UA pdfswere indeed created with that version). From what I understand, this has to do with how spaces are configured in the document; they are "hard" spaces, and thus do not translate into a normal text flow when copied.

The easiest way I know to solve this is to open the pdf in Adobe Acrobat and save it as a Word document (go to File > Save as Other > Microsoft Word, and give it a second to export the file); you will end with essentially the same text configuration, but in an easy-to-copy Word file. Some spaces between column-spanning titles and stuff like that might require some minor formatting tweaks, but nothing too problematic. You shouldn't experience any of those one-word-per-line problems anymore with this method.

Hope it helps!

PS: If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, send me a PM and I'll convert the UA files for you and send them over WeTransfer so you can easily manipulate them.

 

[Leatherhead]

I was going to say this happens to me all the time, but [MENTION=23822]Cristian Andreu[/MENTION] provided an actual reason.

 

[Li Shenron]

Same here. Don't know about UA articles, but it happens for the Basic documents, and for all playtest documents.

In playtesting days, I often wanted to 'redux' the docs so as to include only e.g. 1st-3rd level character stuff to hand over to players, so that they would only see the material they were ever going to use, and not be distracted by 7th-20th level material which they weren't. Copy-pasting was a real PITA

 

[Wolf118]

Here's my fix to that problem with PDFs:

1) Copy the relevant section to a new document (not the one you're using)
2) Ctrl-F to bring up the Navigation sidebar, and then select "Replace" from the drop down (assuming you're using Word 2010 or later)
3) In "Find What", type ".^p" (without the quotes)
4) In "Replace with", type a symbol (this is just a placeholder). Pick something that isn't normally used in the doc (I usually pick the % or $)
5) Hit "Replace All"
6) Keep the Find and Replace dialog box open
7) In "Find What", type "^p" (without the quotes)
8) In "Replace with", type a single space
9) Hit "Replace All"
10) Keep the Find and Replace dialog box open
11) In "Find What", type the symbol you used in step 4
12) In "Replace with", type ".^p"
13) Hit "Replace All"

Clunky, but if you make a macro, it gets easier.

 

[Cristian Andreu]

Hey guys. I figured someone else might encounter the same issue, so I took the liberty of converting all the UA pdfs into Word files, so they can be easily copy-pasted for personal purposes (I think this shouldn't involve any licence issues. If it does, please give me a heads-up and I'll remove them). They keep the exact same format as the original documents, but can be manipulated as a regular text file without any kind of Adobe app.

Here are the download links for the converted files:

Ranger Variants

When Armies Clash

Eberron

Modern Magic

Rune Magic & Prestige Classes

Waterborne Adventures

Modifying Classes

Variant Rules

Awakened Mystic