I am not sure if my experience will help with LibreOffice 3.5.4.2. I’m using version 4.4. However, the last version I used (4.2, I think) worked the same way as what I have now. So with that caveat, I’ll try to address your question.
I have not found a good way to do get pdf files into Writer and keep the formatting. I have used Calibre to convert a pdf to a text file. It did not give me all the bizarre characters that showed in your example.
To use this approach, you’ll need to have Calibre installed.
If you have Calibre open:
- Click “Add books” and then “Add books from a single directory”
- Browse to the pdf file, click it, and then click the “Open” button
- Back in the main window of Calibre click the pdf file
- Click the “Convert books” button at the top and choose “Convert individually”
- In the upper right corner where it says “Output format,” change it to “TXT”
- Click the “OK” button at the bottom right
- In the main window of Calibre on the right side where it says “Path” click on “Click to open”
- Open the .txt version of the file
Unfortunately, all you have is the text with this method. It is possible to open a pdf and get the pictures along with the formatting and text in Draw, but the text does not flow from one line to the next.
It isn’t an elegant solution, but perhaps a combination of the above will get you what you want.
