A PDF exists to look the same everywhere, not to be edited. That is why converting out of PDF is always a reconstruction, while converting into PDF is almost always faithful. Once you know that, you can predict how each direction will turn out.
Why converting out of PDF is a reconstruction
The converter has to piece loose fragments back into paragraphs, tables and headings.
There are no paragraphs or tables inside a PDF. The file stores instructions like "draw this text at this position" and "draw this rule over there". To produce Word or Excel, the tool reads where each character, rule and image sits, then infers which of them form a paragraph, a table or a heading. How well it infers depends on your file far more than on the converter.
Quick guide: converting out of PDF
| You need to | Use | Usually keeps | Usually loses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit the text | PDF to Word | Text, sizes, most of the layout | Complex multi-column layouts, exact image placement |
| Work with the numbers | PDF to Excel | Cells in ruled tables | Tables held together by whitespace |
| Rebuild a deck | PDF to PowerPoint | One page per slide | Animations, layer order |
| Publish on the web or reuse a page | PDF to image | The page exactly as printed | Selectable, searchable text |
PDF to Word
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Check first: real text or just a picture?
If you can select a line, the text is real. If only the whole page selects, it is a photo.
Open the file and try to select one line of text. If you can, the text is real and you can convert as normal. If the whole page selects as a single block, it is a scan or a photo, and there is no text to extract.
For a scan, run OCR PDF first. It recognises the characters in the image and attaches them to the file, and only then is converting to Word or Excel worth it. See also how to convert PDF to Word and keep the layout.
Converting into PDF
This direction is far safer. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and images all convert to PDF nearly untouched, because PDF can describe everything they need.
Two things worth knowing:
- Fonts are embedded, so the person receiving the file does not need them installed. This is why a 200 KB Word file can become a 2 MB PDF.
- Images keep their original resolution. If you need a smaller file, compress the PDF afterwards rather than degrading the images first.
If someone else will keep editing the document, send the original Word file alongside the PDF. Converting a PDF back to Word is never as good as keeping the source.
Related tools · PDF tools
Frequently asked questions
Does converting damage the original file?
No. Your original is untouched; the tool writes a new file.
Are my files kept on the server?
They are deleted after 2 hours, and you can delete them yourself as soon as you have the result.
Why do tables break when I convert PDF to Excel?
Because the table has no ruling lines. Column boundaries are inferred from those lines; a table aligned with spaces has to be guessed at, and guesses go wrong.
The converted Word file has text overlapping itself.
That happens with non-standard fonts and multi-column layouts. Converting to images and running OCR gives cleaner text, at the cost of the formatting.
Try it on your own file
Free, no sign-up. Files are deleted after 2 hours.
