# Text Extraction and Indexing **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 20, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-extraction-and-indexing/92564 "2007-04-20T19:40:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elliottcable](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e79b87/32.png) [@elliottcable](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elliottcable)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-extraction-and-indexing/92564/1 "2007-04-20T19:40:38Z")
Long story short I am going to have to index and search uploaded files. They will be in Word document, Excel, pdf, and text format. So what is the best way to extract information in RoR so that I can place the needed text into the database? There are command line utilities that will convert word to txt but I would prefer an in code solution if possible. Any suggestions on excel? The only thing I could find was a perl module. I’ve decided to use acts\_as\_ferret as my indexing agent. Does anyone have any tips on using it other then [http://www.railsenvy.com/2007/2/19/acts-as-ferret-tutorial](http://www.railsenvy.com/2007/2/19/acts-as-ferret-tutorial) ? – Elliott C. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![elliottcable](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e79b87/32.png) [@elliottcable](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elliottcable)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-extraction-and-indexing/92564/2 "2007-04-20T19:55:39Z")
Hi Elliott, have a look at the ContentExtractor of RDig [http://rdig.rubyforge.org/](http://rdig.rubyforge.org/) this might get you a good way regarding pdf and word. Though it uses command line utilities as far as I know. Cheers, Jan 2007/4/20, Elliott C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > ? > > – > Elliott C. > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > > – Jan P. Rechtsanwalt Grünebergstraße 38 22763 Hamburg Tel +49 (0)40 41265809 Fax +49 (0)40 380178-73022 Mobil +49 (0)171 3516667 [http://www.inviado.de](http://www.inviado.de)