How to convert a PDF to Word
PDFs are built for presentation, not editing — which is exactly why you sometimes need the content back in Word. Converting a PDF to a .docx recovers the text into an editable document so you can revise a contract, update a résumé, or reuse a report you no longer have the source for.
How clean the result is depends on the PDF. Documents that were exported from a word processor convert best; heavily designed layouts and scans are harder. Here's how to do it and what to expect.
Step by step
- 1
Open the PDF to Word tool
Go to the PDF to Word tool and add your PDF.
- 2
Convert
Run the conversion. The tool extracts the text and layout into a .docx document.
- 3
Download and tidy up
Open the result in Word (or Google Docs / LibreOffice) and fix any spacing or formatting the conversion couldn't reproduce exactly.
When conversion works — and when it doesn't
Text-based PDFs (ones where you can select the text) convert well: the words come across editable, with a reasonable approximation of the layout. Expect to nudge some spacing.
Scanned PDFs are images of text, so there's nothing to extract until they're run through OCR first. And if you only need the raw words rather than a formatted document, the PDF to Text tool is faster and runs entirely in your browser.
FAQ
Will the formatting be perfect?
Rarely 100%. Conversion produces positioned text that's close to the original; complex layouts usually need light cleanup in Word.
It converted a scan and got nothing — why?
A scan is an image with no text layer. Run it through the OCR tool first to make it searchable, then convert.
I just want the text, not a Word file
Use PDF to Text (or PDF to Markdown) — it extracts the words in your browser, no upload.