Unfortunately, PDF documents are difficult to edit unless you pay for the Pro version of Adobe Acrobat. Wondering what you can do to make changes to a document when you only have access to a PDF version? You can use a conversion tool to convert the PDF to Word before editing.
Convert a PDF to Word Using Adobe Online Converter
As long as you have an Internet connection, the easiest way to convert PDFs to Word is to use Adobe’s free converter. Since Adobe invented PDF files, it’s the best converter in terms of formatting preservation and ease of conversion. The converter also makes sure everything is editable so that you can use the converted document in Microsoft Word. Adobe does limit the number of times you can use the tool for free, but you can easily get around this restriction by using Incognito mode on your web browser. Follow the steps below to convert your PDF to a Microsoft Word Document.
Convert a PDF to Word With Third-Party Apps
Although Adobe’s conversion tool does the best job transferring all elements of your PDF to an editable Word Document, there are several other Web-based tools that will convert files.
1. BigPDFConverter
BigPDFConverter is a free-to-use online PDF-to-Word conversion tool. Once you convert the file online, you can download your newly converted Microsoft Word Document to edit or share it with others. This tool does a fairly decent job of converting text but has a harder time with non-text elements (especially tables).
2. Nitro PDF to Word Converter
Nitro PDF to Word Converter is another website that lets you convert files for free. Unlike some of the other options, Nitro collects your email address and sends the converted file to you. Besides this minor inconvenience, Nitro’s converter works fairly well and is completely free.
3. PDFtoDoc
PDFtoDoc offers something most of the other conversion tools don’t: multi-file conversion. Instead of converting PDFs one at a time, you can use PDFtoDoc to select as many PDFs as you’d like, convert them all simultaneously, then download a zip file with all of your new Word documents in it. That feature aside, it works the same as other converters. Image credit: Daniel Thomas via Pexels. All screenshots by Megan Glosson. In many cases, the formatting does not transfer well with Word’s native conversion option, which makes using a PDF-to-Word converter a better option.
