Convert PDF to Word

Why convert a PDF to Word

A PDF is made to look the same everywhere, not to be edited. To change a sentence in a report, reuse a paragraph from a manual or update last year's letter, you need the text back in a word processor. This tool reads the text layer of the PDF, the same text you can select and copy in a PDF reader, and rebuilds it as a Word document: the lines of a paragraph are joined into one paragraph that rewraps when you edit it, a word split by a hyphen at the end of a line is joined again, larger and short bold lines become real headings in Word's navigation pane, and the fonts, sizes, bold and italic are carried over. Pages with two columns are read column by column, page numbers at the top and bottom are left out, and pictures are placed between the paragraphs where they were on the page. The document opens in Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, Apple Pages and Google Docs. Everything happens in this page with pdf.js, so the PDF never leaves your device. It works best on PDFs made from a word processor; a magazine layout or a form will need tidying up afterwards.

How to convert a PDF to Word

1. Drop your PDF in the box, or click to choose it.
2. Choose whether each PDF page starts on a new page in Word and whether pictures are included.
3. Click Convert to Word and open the downloaded .docx file in Word, LibreOffice or Google Docs.

What changes when you convert

The layout is rebuilt, not copied

Word lets text flow from line to line, while a PDF fixes every line in place, so the document is rebuilt from the text and its position. Paragraphs, headings, indents and centred lines come through, but lines can break at other places and spacing can differ, especially with unusual fonts. Check the result before you send it on.

Tables, text boxes and colours

Tables are not rebuilt as Word tables: each row becomes a line of text with the cells separated by spaces. Text in boxes, sidebars and footnotes ends up as ordinary paragraphs where it was on the page, text turned sideways is left out, and text colours, lines and drawn shapes are not kept.

Scanned PDFs have no text to convert

A scan or a photo of a page is a picture, not text, so there is nothing to edit. Such pages are put into the Word document as a picture of the page, and the result says how many. To get editable text from a scan you need text recognition (OCR) first, for example in Word itself, which can open a PDF and convert it, or in Google Docs.

Fonts you do not have

The document asks for the fonts the PDF used, by name. If a font is not installed on your computer, Word shows a similar one instead, which can change line breaks. Fonts that came with the PDF are not copied into the document.