PDFs are designed to look the same everywhere, which is exactly what makes them hard to edit. When you need to update an old CV, reuse text from a report or fix a contract template, converting the PDF into a Word document is usually the fastest route.
Conversion quality depends heavily on how the PDF was made, so this guide also covers when to use a different approach.
Step by step: convert PDF to Word
Upload the PDF
Open PDF to Word and drop in a file of up to 20 MB. It is sent securely to our converter.
Let it convert
LibreOffice rebuilds the pages as an editable DOCX, keeping paragraphs, images and simple tables. This usually takes a few seconds.
Open and tidy up
Open the file in Word, Google Docs or Pages. Check headings, tables and page breaks, which are the parts most likely to need a quick fix.
Which PDFs convert well
The best results come from PDFs that were exported from a word processor in the first place, such as letters, reports, CVs and forms. Their text is stored as real characters in reading order, so it maps cleanly back into paragraphs.
Designed layouts are harder. Brochures, magazines, multi-column newsletters and slides place text in many separate boxes, and the converted document may reproduce those boxes rather than flowing text. It will still be editable, but expect to spend a few minutes adjusting the layout.
Scanned PDFs need OCR
A scanned PDF is a set of pictures of pages. There are no characters inside, only pixels, so any converter can only give you those pictures back in a Word file. Turning pictures of text into real text requires OCR (optical character recognition).
Two free ways to do that: upload the PDF to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs, which runs OCR automatically, or open it in recent versions of Microsoft Word, which offer to convert PDFs when opening them. To quickly check whether your PDF has real text, try selecting a sentence in a PDF viewer, or run it through Extract Text from PDF: if no text comes out, it is a scan.
When you do not need to convert at all
- Small corrections, filling blanks or adding a note: edit the PDF directly with Edit PDF, which keeps the original layout exactly.
- You only need the words: Extract Text from PDF gives you plain text instantly, in your browser.
- You need tables in a spreadsheet: PDF to Excel extracts each table into its own worksheet.
Back to PDF when you are done
After editing, send the document as a PDF again so it looks the same for everyone. Save as PDF from Word, or use Word to PDF. Both the upload and the converted file are deleted from our server as soon as the result is sent back to you.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my converted Word file look different from the PDF?
PDFs store exact positions while Word documents flow text. Fonts that are not available may be substituted, and complex layouts are rebuilt as text boxes. Documents originally made in Word convert most faithfully.
Can I convert a password-protected PDF?
Remove the password first with Unlock PDF (you need to know it), then convert the unlocked copy.
Is there a size limit?
The upload limit is 20 MB. For larger files, split the PDF into parts with Split PDF and convert them separately.
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