Haven’t tried this, but I gather PDFTOTEXT takes a second parameter naming the output file. Otherwise it goes to stdout. > On Sep 1, 2015, at 2:27 PM, SUBSCRIBE MACSCRPT Inyo55 <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > 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 Bill Steele [log in to unmask]