Using OSX Yosemite. I installed the PDFTOTEXT unix shell program and it works fine.....it converts non-bitmap PDF files to TEXT files. I am trying to take the result of this conversion.....the Text file.....and use it in the next step of my Applescript. Here is what I have for the conversion part: set myfile to choose file with prompt "Choose PDF to convert to TEXT" set myfile to myfile as alias do shell script "/usr/local/bin/pdftotext " & quoted form of POSIX path of myfile The above creates the text file and puts it in the directory from where the pdf file was chosen, but I cannot "grab" the text file to use it in the next step, which is a grep search. I tried to set an object for the result: set mytextfile to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/pdftotext " & quoted form of POSIX path of myfile This did not work, nothing was returned. Any suggestions? thanks, Bob Rutledge