[moneydance] Possible to convert pdf files to qif?

[Edward Reid]

At 19:02 11/06/07 -0700, Tim Folger wrote:
>My external hard drive recently died, and with it, by moneydance backup 
>files.
>I can download pdf files from my bank with all my account information for the
>past year, and was wondering if there's some way to convert pdf files to qif
>format, which I could then import to moneydance.

Unlikely. If you understand the QIF format and have some knowledge of 
scripting a text editor, you could "save as text" from Adobe Reader and try 
to manipulate the text into QIF. Personally I wouldn't even bother; I'd 
just start typing, or decide what I'm not going to recover.

Except that I would have at least three more-recent backups, so I would not 
face the problem. Take it as an opportunity to set up proper backups. If 
you use the MD backup feature as your primary protection, make sure the 
backup folder is on a different physical medium from the main file. This 
however is still a very limited backup. My MD backup files go to the same 
folder as the main file on my laptop's internal HD. All changed files are 
backed up every night to a portable external HD and to a Jungle Disk 
(online storage, see http://www.jungledisk.com). When I'm at home, the 
files are also backed up nightly to one of two external HDs attached to a 
server, alternating nights. One of those HDs is kept in a location at the 
other end of the house. These backups keep multiple copies (up to ten IIRC) 
and thus provide protection against file corruption that's not detected 
immediately.

So if my laptop's HD fails or the data file is corrupted, my levels of 
backup are: 1) the portable HD, 2) the Jungle Disk, 3) the multiple backups 
to the two HDs. If my computer room is robbed of all equipment, that's a 
good chance that the alternate HD is not lost, and the Jungle Disk provides 
a second level of protection. If my house burns down, then I have the 
Jungle Disk -- only one level of protection left, but it's a solid one, and 
I'm willing to let it get that thin for such an unlikely occurrence.

Edward
-- 
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org