Okular is the default document viewer of the K desktop environment, which we all know as KDE.
But did you know that besides being able to display a myriad of different file types, Okular can also, among its many other features, detect and select tables.
In order to use this awesome feature, all one has to do is simply open a document with Okular (obviously) > click “Tools” from the top menu bar and select “Table Selection Tool”.
From here on, the user can draw a rectangle around the table and Okular will automagically detect its rows and columns. And if that’s not good enough, you can also fine-tune it further by clicking near the edges to divide up the table.
Just imagine how useful that feature is, especially for students, and generally for people who dabble in spreadsheets on a regular basis.
Picture the following scenario in your mind: a student sits at night, working on an essay needed to be submitted, crunching data from all sorts of resources. When bumping into a table of few dozen rows or more, all the student has to do is simply select and copy-paste to extract the data from that table, instead of manually copy it row by row.
If you’re that student, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the shortcut greatly.
Okular’s table select limitation: DRM
But before you get too excited, there’s also a limitation you should be aware of.
Of course, for the feature to work, the document you’re copying from must not be protected somehow such as by DRM (Digital rights management) for instance. For in that case, even the mighty open source hands are tied.
So make sure you put it into good use then. ;)
