About converting PDF to Word
A PDF stores positions on a page, not paragraphs and styles, so turning one back into a Word document means rebuilding its structure. This converter finds lines of text, joins them into paragraphs, recreates tables and places images, giving you a document you can edit rather than a picture of each page. It works best on PDFs that were made from a word processor in the first place, such as reports, letters and contracts. Complex layouts, such as magazines with many columns, text over images or unusual fonts, are harder to rebuild, and you may need to tidy spacing, columns or line breaks afterwards. Because the tool is in Beta, the layout may differ from the original; the text itself is usually accurate. Scanned PDFs have no text layer, so pages are read with OCR first; clear, straight scans give the best results. If you only need to change a few words or add something, Edit PDF may be quicker than converting.
Limits: files up to 25 MB with a free account, 200 MB on Pro and 500 MB on Business; up to 3 files per task on Free, 50 on Pro and 200 on Business. Each file counts as one Office conversion: 10 a month on Free, 300 on Pro and 500 per user on Business, shared across the workspace. PDFs can have up to 2,000 pages.
Before you sign in, files can be up to 25 MB and you can run 10 server tasks a day. A free account raises this to 25 MB and 10 tasks a day.
Privacy: your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection to our UK servers, processed automatically with no person opening it, and deleted within 2 hours (1 hour on Free), or straight away with Delete now.
How to use the PDF tools: Step-by-step help with every tool, limits and your files.
PDF to Word: frequently asked questions
Will the Word file look exactly like my PDF?
Not always. The tool is in Beta: simple documents convert closely, but complex layouts may need some tidying in Word.
Can I convert a scanned PDF to Word?
Yes. Scanned pages are read with OCR before conversion. For more control over OCR languages, use Scan to Word or Excel.
Can I convert a password-protected PDF?
If it needs a password to open, unlock it first with Unlock PDF using the password you know, then convert the result.
Which version of Word can open the file?
The result is a standard .docx file, which opens in Word 2007 and later, LibreOffice, Google Docs and Pages.