spent hours trying to copy from PDF to paste into ODF document. cant even block (select) the text.

I suggest that you use LibreOffice to open the PDF file and save it as ODT file. After that, you can copy the text easily.

I thought I had tried that, several times, but was stopped by apparently irrelevant page. This time, I got this Page, <\AppData\Local\Temp\lu121641i54h.tmp>, which may have been what I thought to be the irrelevant information. however, and found the relevant file, now shown as an ODF file. So, I copied and pasted it into my appropriate directory. when I retrieved it, though, my attempts to copy we're treated as though the pages were photographs. I still could not edit the text.

When I open a pdf in LibreOffice (writer), I can either edit it directly or save it as odg and edit.

From Robert. I succeeded in retrieving the pdf document with LibrOffice, and saving it as an odt document. Still, when I retrieve it, my attempts to select (block) text we're treated as though the pages were photographs. I still cannot edit the text. Please help.

Thank you wxie. Can you name an OCR program that is safe and free?

If you want to have control of the program you use, I recommend free (as in freedom) software. For example, https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/OCRmyPDF

I clicked on <https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/OCRmyPDF> and got the page <https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page>. It does not have free programs. Paid membership is required.

Do you know of any safe, free OCR programs?

It should be there in the directory, but anyway it is released here https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF

Thank you. That URL, <https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF>, led me to <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/#install-winget>. For Windows, there were many steps, including loading other programs and command line instructions. It's way too complicated for my damaged brain. I'm blocked.

Hi,

As a moderator, I've marked wxie's reply as a solution so that this question is considered solved. It does seem off-topic for this forum, but I don't see any reason to prevent you from continuing the discussion here.

Perhaps the "low level" workflows are not a good fit for this purpose. Have you contemplated e.g. an addon addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/copyfish-ocr-software to help you with such tasks? (Privacy and other considerations left to the consumer…)