Retrieving text from locked/protected PDF file

Every once in a while you run into a situation where you need to retrieve data from a PDF file and find out that the creator has password protected it and does not allow copying the text and printing. Geez, you think yourself, how am I going to get myself out of this predicament and impress my boss? Well, if you run Mac OS X, you’re well on your way! Here I will show you how to get that text in the about the most unfashionable & ugly way possible but what the heck, right? It works. That’s all that matters.

**Note that this method does not copy any formatting what so ever so please double check against your original document to ensure that everything came out correctly. This can also become very tedious if dealing with multiple pages of information. **Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for whatever someone might do with this information. This is here to help people as a last resort to recover some if not all data from their own PDFs and not for copyrighted or otherwise forbidden/confidential files.

Instructions:

	1. Open your PDF file with the Preview program(it should be the default program for PDF files).
	2. With the file open, hit ⌘-A or [RIGHT CLICK] and select "Select All".
	3. Then [RIGHT CLICK] the document and select "Search in Spotlight", a Finder window pops up showing the results from Spotlight.
	4. Now click in the Spotlight search bar and hit ⌘-A
	5. Copy all the text by hitting ⌘-C or selecting "Edit" then "Copy".
	6. Now open the text editor or word processor of your choice and Paste(⌘-V) the text you’ve copied.
	7. All that’s left to do it is sort out the formatting, colors, and fonts and voila! a super poor mans work-around to PDF lock.