One-line Positional Documents

Singe line positional templates are one of the most basic documents in TextConverter. This means that all of the fields can be found within a single line, and that they are separated throughout the document positionally.

The steps to a typical conversion/data extraction process

  1. Load the input file by dropping the file on TextConverter or choosing "Load input file" from the file menu
  2. Click on a line of detail information, Right click and choose the green check mark - "Setup fields from selected line"
  3. Make adjustments to the input fields as required 
  4. Right click away from the detail lines and choose "add top level template"
  5. Setup a tag based or other top level template as required
  6. Set the output data source or data file that will receive the extracted data
  7. Save the project and set up any automation for processing additional files
  8. Run the conversion!

This tutorial will use the EZPass statement PDF file. 

Load the file:

  1. Open the TextConverter program
  2. Drag and drop the desired input file from the system folder
    1. In this case, we will be using the EZPass Statement file.

Create the template: 

  1. Select a line to serve as the anchor. This line should include all the fields that you are going to extract. In this sample, we will select the first line of data, that begins with "2/14/13"
  2. Right click, and select the "Setup Template from this line" option. 
  1. All of the lines that matched the anchor line should now be highlighted in blue. 

  1. In this sample, you will notice that the very last line is different from the other selected lines. We want to remove this
  2. Find a distinct difference between the non-desired line and the rest. For example, this line contains empty fields.
  3. Select one of the empty fields
  4. In the field property pane, make it so that the fields cannot be empty.
  1. If there are any desired lines that are not included, take the following measures:
    1. When you select a failed line, the field will be highlighted in red. The explanation for why it was not selected will be displayed in the status bar. 
    2. You can check the "Show Missing Line" option to create a CSV file with all missing lines and explanations.
    3. Click the "M" button on the top right to view the Missing Line file. 
    4. Based on the reasoning, you may be able to drag the edges of the fields to include the missing fields, until all desired fields are included. 

Congratulations, you have set a single line positional template!

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