Put one of the following mappings in your vimrc: :command! -complete=file -nargs=1 Rpdf :r !pdftotext -nopgbrk - :command! -complete=file -nargs=1 Rpdf :r !pdftotext -nopgbrk - |fmt -csw78 These define the :Rpdf command to read the result of converting a pdf document to text. The text is read into the current buffer after the current line. The first reads the pdf with each paragraph as a long line, while the second wraps long lines (if the fmt utility is available). For example, the following commands open a new tab page and read the text from a pdf document into the buffer.