PDFs are great; they keep their formatting regardless of what software you’re using, and you can’t accidentally move or delete some part of it. Those very reasons are usually why PDFs can be frustrating at times, though.

While they’re very useful for the purpose of sharing a finished document, a big chunk of your interactions with a PDF will be grunting and yelling if you want to edit the smallest thing.

Converting any file extension has never been easier with online converters for just about everything, but it’s still problematic with PDFs. Converting a PDF to a Word file or any other file extension is almost guaranteed to alter its formatting and possibly even give you an unusable file as a result.

In this post, we’ll be covering how to convert a PDF to a Word document in the simplest way possible. We’ll test three different tools with a 30-page PDF file that contains text, images, a table, and other formatting objects like lines, heading bars, and boxes to see how they compare. 

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This is possibly one of the oldest and most straightforward ways to convert a PDF. To convert a PDF through Microsoft Word, all you need to do is go to the “File” tab in the top bar, hit “Open,” choose the PDF in the browser that pops up. Microsoft Word will ask if you want to create a .docx copy of your PDF to edit. 

In our test, Microsoft Word did amazingly well compared to the other conversion tools we tried. It didn’t lose any of the fonts or images. Also, it created a footer correctly, including pagination, and it made editable drawings for all the visual objects in the PDF. 

The only issue was that it grouped a lot of the visual objects like heading bars and their tables, which needed some untangling. However, that was something that needed five extra minutes to finish.

1. Microsoft Word

Adobe invented the PDF file extension, so needless to say, they made a great PDF conversion tool for it. It’s free, fast, and totally web-based. This tool is great in how simple it is. However, some elements in your document will probably be a bit out of place.

To convert a PDF file, you’ll need to hit the “Select a file” button in the middle of the screen and upload your PDF. You can download the .docx file, but if you’re converting multiple files, you’ll need to sign in with your Google or Adobe account.

Our test file was converted within seconds. It kept all the images, text, formatting shapes, and colors, but half the images were stacked on top of each other on a single page. One font in the PDF was removed, and the text inside boxes was overflowing and converted to a drawing that you can edit.

Overall, the document needed immense tweaking to reach the same formatting as the original PDF. 

We’d recommend Adobe Online Converter for image-rich PDFs like portfolios and brochures.

2. Adobe Online Converter

If you use the Google suite for your files, chances are you’ve accidentally converted a PDF from your Google Drive already. That’s how easy it is to convert a PDF to a Google doc or .docx file.

To convert your PDF, first, you’ll need to upload it to your Google Drive. Once it’s uploaded, open the file on Google Drive and an “Open with Google Docs” button will appear at the top center of the screen. Click that button, and that’s it; Google will instantly convert your PDF to an editable Google Doc, which you can then download as a .docx or other six other file types.

Our test PDF file lost all its images when we tried converting it through Google Docs. Unlike Adobe’s converter, though, it didn’t lump up all text in cells or boxes into drawings. Instead, it recognized and created the tables, which meant that editing them was way easier. 

Since the text took more space with the auto-created cells, though, pages completely blended into each other and the pagination appeared randomly between headings and text.

We’d recommend Google Docs for PDFs that contain spreadsheets, tables, or tons of text.

3. Google Docs

There are quite a few online PDF converters out there. The main reason why we only included Adobe Online Converter in our post is simply the fact that other independent online converters don’t really outperform Adobe’s converter in any way, and they certainly don’t outperform Docs or Microsoft Word. 

On top of that, almost all online converters, including Adobe Online Converter, will either try to make you register or get the pro version of their software.

Are Online Converters Worth It?

Converting PDFs might be necessary if you need to make a lot of changes and can’t find the source of that PDF, or maybe you need to extract all its content. However, if you find yourself frequently needing to change simple things like dates, names, and so forth, editing the PDF itself might be more efficient.

There are lots of tools online for that, too, but the easiest and most capable tool is LibreOffice Draw. It’s an open-source tool that’s made for the purpose of editing graphic documents. 

Editing the typo you noticed a little too late or a small piece of text using LibreOffice Draw is as simple as editing a Word document, but you might need to figure out its interface a little bit for more in-depth editing.

Of course, if we’re going to talk about editing PDFs, there’s none better than Adobe Acrobat. This program was made to edit and manage PDFs by its very own inventors. Adobe Acrobat Pro is a subscription-based software that you can cancel any time, and it has a 7-day free trial if you’re just looking to change that one file you’re stuck with.

How to Edit PDF Files?

It’s important to remember that no PDF will survive being converted to the .docx format without some changes in formatting and the overall look. 

If you’re short on time or if maintaining the same look is important, your best bet is to look for PDF editing tools. What you choose to go with will depend entirely on the PDF you’re working with and how important the level of detail is to what you’re using it for.

How to Convert PDF to Word

1. Microsoft Word

2. Adobe Online Converter

3. Google Docs

Are Online Converters Worth It?

How to Edit PDF Files?

Conclusion

How to Convert PDF to Word

1. Microsoft Word

2. Adobe Online Converter

3. Google Docs

Are Online Converters Worth It?

How to Edit PDF Files?

Conclusion

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