In any environment, both at work and at home, documents written on the computer have 3 main formats: plain text, text formatted with Microsoft Word and the document in PDF. Editing normal text files, .doc and .docx is always possible, just having Word installed on your PC or using Notepad (for plain text).
But PDF documents cannot be edited with a simple reader and even copying and pasting from a PDF document sometimes becomes impossible due to the protections on the file.
In another article we saw how to create a PDF file from a Word file, while now we will see together how to edit a PDF by converting from PDF to Word so that we can treat the file as if it were a normal written document and modify the points that we consider necessary .
We see below the best free programs and online services that allow you to transform a PDF into a Word file, without limitations or restrictions.
READ ALSO: Top 10 programs to edit PDF
Best programs to convert PDF to Word
Before starting, we must make a necessary clarification: even if you convert a PDF document into a Doc file compatible with Word, it is not necessarily possible to edit it; it can be done but it depends on how the original document was created.
If the PDF file was generated by a photographic scan of a paper document (with any scanner for example), the converter will interpret the entire text as if it were a still image which, therefore, cannot be modified.
What is needed in these cases is an " Optical Character Recognition " (OCR) software and in another article we had seen some free tools to edit texts and words of scanned pdf or fax images : six we have in our hands a PDF generated by images, should read the other guide immediately, because these programs can "read" documents based on images and convert them to text, but in most cases you will have to do a good manual work to get a good conversion, especially if the source is formed by a large number of pages.
A further general clarification is needed with reference to the reliability and security of online conversion services .
Their quality is excellent and, sometimes within a few minutes, you should receive it via email or get the link to download the PDF file converted into Word document directly from the browser.
As for security, all online services ensure that the files will be transferred through a secure connection and that the document will be protected according to privacy laws; furthermore, the email address provided to receive the converted documents will not be used or shared with third parties; clearly the decision whether or not to trust is individual, it is up to us to trust what we are told.
If we have doubts, we use offline programs for the most delicate and sensitive documents and limit ourselves to using online programs for small documents.
PDF to Word conversion programs
The best programs to convert PDF to Word are as follows.
1) Icecream PDF Converter
Icecream PDF Converter is the best free PDF converter that you can find and you can download it from here -> Icecream PDF Converter .
With Icecream PDF Converter you can convert PDF files to DOC, DOCX, JPG, PNG or HTML format (among others) and can manage up to 10 pages at a time.
You can split a PDF into several documents or convert only a few pages of a larger document (for example by extracting only a specific chapter from a book).
Icecream PDF Converter also eliminates the need for a PDF printer driver because it is capable of creating PDFs in complete autonomy.
The free version allows you to convert up to five documents in a single operation and is more than enough for most users.
2) PDFMate
Another very useful program to convert PDF is PDFMate, downloadable from here -> PDFMate .
This program is easy to use but so powerful that it can convert PDF to Word documents automatically and quickly.
PDFMate uses optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the scanned PDF files and make them into editable text, which is excellent for any type of document, pantry, book or magazine, receipts or bank statements.
PDFMate can convert PDF files into images, plain text, HTML, DOCX or EPUB format.
READ ALSO: Programs to convert PDF to JPG images
3) Free PDF to Word Converter
Free PDF to Word Converter is a free, very light and small program downloadable from here -> Free PDF to Word Converter from SmartSoft .
This program produces excellent results in the process of converting a PDF into a DOC file for Word, making it one of the best of its kind and one of the easiest to use.
The interface is very simple and the conversion takes place in a few clicks; the final result is of excellent quality and identical to the original even if the text is managed through mobile text boxes so the modification must be done piece by piece.
4) AnyBizSoft PDF to Word
AnyBizSoft PDF to Word is a free promotion program that requires registration with Email address for free use; we can download it from here -> AnyBizSoft PDF to Word .
The conversion has no restrictions and the downloaded version is the complete version of the program, but cannot be used for commercial purposes (no offices, shops and public bodies).
AnyBizSoft is probably the best of this list: simple, easy to use user interface and just drag and drop files to perform a good automatic conversion.
Image management is excellent as well as text formatting and allows you to convert even protected PDFs.
The PDF document converted to Word will be very similar to the original if we use this program.
5) Some PDF to Word Converter
Some PDF to Word Converter is a program already mentioned in the previous article on how to edit Acrobat PDF files.
This is the smallest and lightest software, totally free and without limitations, with excellent performance on PDFs made of text only but poor in the results of documents with a lot of graphics and many images.
Other programs
1) FlipPDF to Word is an excellent program for converting PDF to Word documents quickly.
With this free software you can convert 500 PDF in one go (in batch) by creating editable Word documents.
2) UniPDF a free program that is really easy to use and offers perfect results when converting between PDF and Word files.
3) Nuance PDF is a program to open and convert PDF.
This is the only service that also offers optical character recognition ( OCR ) and makes text from scans or based on images editable.
Among the conversion websites, NuancePDF is the fastest to give results with excellent quality with excellent image management, text formatting similar to the original and also support to convert from PDF to xls for Excel.
In terms of final quality of the work done, we are at the highest levels
Online PDF to Word conversion services
Here below we can find the PDF to Word conversion services working via the Internet.
1) Smallpdf
One of the best online conversion services to obtain PDF in Word is certainly Smallpdf, reachable at the link here -> Smallpdf .
Simply drag the file to the center of the window (or use the Choose file or From Google Drive or From Dropbox buttons to upload a local file or to the cloud) to obtain a clean and effective conversion, even of the longest and most elaborate PDFs.
The download of the converted file will start automatically through the browser used.
2) PDF to Word Free
PDF to Word Free is provided by the same authors as NitroPDF Reader and is a completely online service that does not require you to download any programs; the site can be reached here -> PDF to Word Free .
The final conversion results are excellent even if you wait a few hours before sending the converted document.
The text and images are formatted as in the original PDF even if, sometimes, the images end up behind other elements and it seems that they are not there.
3) Zamzar
Zamzar is a famous website for converting everything, multimedia files, images and documents and can be reached from here -> Zamzar .
To use the service just upload the file using the Choose File button, then select Doc in Step 2 and indicate an email address in Step 3.
When ready just click Convert ; the converted file will be sent to the email address indicated as an attachment.
4) PDFOnline.com
PDFOnline.com is an online service that converts directly from the site immediately and is available here -> PDFOnline.com .
Surprisingly, the conversion quality was excellent, even in the management of images and tables.
Many expert opinions report it as the best way to turn PDF into Doc for Word .
6) As seen in another article, you can convert PDF to Word online using Microsoft's cloud service Onedrive .
Conclusion
In conclusion, the choice of the site or program to be used may vary according to the content of the document and our needs (PDF with many images, many tables or a lot of written text).
- For the manipulation and formatting of text or text boxes the best online service is PDFOnline.com
- To manage images, the best program is AnyBizSoft PDF to Word which, generally (the results may vary from file to file) extracts the images individually and positions them correctly.
Among the online services, NuancePDF, NitroPDF and PDFOnline.com give excellent results.
At this proposed reminder that you can extract and save images from a PDF separately.
- For the manipulation of tables correctly and closer to the original document, a conversion from PDF to Excel is probably advisable (such as PdfToExcelOnline ) but, in general, the best online services are KoolWire and PDFOnline.com.
Still in the field of editing PDF files, I remember that you can write or fill in fields or forms of a PDF and sign them .
