Can anybody tell me a good tool or free application where I can extract the text from a PDF file.?

Question

Only text, not pictures, format of the text should be preserved.
Line end hyphens should be treated correctly. text layers should come in the correct order not in the order of the layers.

Answer 1

you can use a freeware online file conversion service
http://bestofrest.blogspot.com/search/label/Online%20File%20Converter

Answer 2

there is a linux program that will do just that, if it will work in windows I don't know.. I was reading about it yesterday