How to Convert PDF to Word (Including Scanned PDFs)

Here is how to convert PDF to Word: open the PDF in Microsoft Word with File, then Open, and Word turns it into an editable document while trying to keep the layout. Without Word, Google Docs can open a PDF as a document, and a browser converter can pull out the text as a DOCX file. The best choice depends on two questions: do you need the original layout, and is the PDF a scan?

First, check what kind of PDF you have

Open the PDF and try to select a sentence with your mouse or finger. The result tells you which tools will work.

OCR stands for optical character recognition. It reads the shapes of letters in an image and turns them into real text. Without it, a scanned page has no words to convert, only a picture.

How to open a PDF in Word and edit it

Microsoft documents this feature for Word for Microsoft 365 and Word 2016 to 2024 on Windows, on its page about opening PDFs in Word.

1. Open Word.
2. Choose File, then Open, and select the PDF. You may need Browse to find it.
3. Word says it will make a copy of the PDF and convert it into a format Word can display. Click OK.
4. Edit the document.
5. Choose File, then Save As, and save it as a Word document (.docx).

Your original PDF stays unchanged. Recent versions of Word for Mac can also open a PDF with File, then Open, and convert it, as long as Microsoft 365 is up to date. If your Mac version does not offer it, use one of the methods below.

What converts well and what does not

Microsoft says the conversion works best with files that are mostly text, such as business, legal or scientific documents. Lines and page breaks may fall in different places than in the original.

• Often wrong: tables with cell spacing, page colors and borders, footnotes that run across pages, endnotes, comments and font effects such as glow or shadow.
• Lost: audio, video, bookmarks and other active elements.
• Not editable: pages that are mostly graphics may come in as images, so their text cannot be changed.

Convert PDF to Word with Google Docs

This route is free with a Google account and works on any computer, including a Chromebook or a Mac without Office.

1. Upload the PDF to Google Drive.
2. Right click the file, choose Open with, then Google Docs.
3. Drive creates a new Google Doc with the text.
4. To get a Word file, choose File, then Download, then Microsoft Word (.docx).

According to Google's help page on converting PDF and photo files to text, the file must be 2 MB or smaller. Bold, italics, font size, font type and line breaks are likely to be kept, while lists, tables, columns, footnotes and endnotes are unlikely to be detected.

The big advantage is OCR. Google Docs reads scanned pages too, so it is the free built in answer for a scanned PDF to Word. For the best result, the page should be right side up, sharp and evenly lit, with text that is not too small.

Copy the text on a Mac with Preview

When you need a few paragraphs, not the whole document, copying is often faster than any converter.

1. Open the PDF in Preview.
2. Choose Tools, then Text Selection.
3. Drag over the text you want. To select one column of a table, hold the Option key while you drag.
4. Choose Edit, then Copy, and paste into Word, Pages or Google Docs.

Pasted text keeps the words but usually not the layout. Line breaks from the PDF can end up in the middle of sentences, so check paragraphs after pasting. If Preview selects nothing, the PDF is probably a scan.

Convert PDF to Word online with FileKiwi

The PDF to Word converter is built for one job: getting the text of a PDF into a file you can edit, on any device and without an account.

1. Drop the PDF on the page, or tap to choose it.
2. Your browser reads every page and turns each block of text into a paragraph.
3. Download the DOCX and open it in Word, Google Docs, Pages or LibreOffice.

Be clear about what you get. The DOCX holds plain, editable text in 11 pt Calibri, one paragraph per text block, with a page break after every PDF page. The layout, images and tables are not rebuilt, so expect a clean document to restyle, not a copy of the design.

Scanned PDFs show a "No text found" message, because FileKiwi does not offer OCR. Password protected PDFs are refused; remove the password first if you have the right to. A copy of each PDF you add is kept in a private folder for 30 days and then deleted, and the DOCX is not stored.

This plain approach suits text you want to rewrite anyway: an old CV whose original file is lost, a policy to update, or a letter to reuse. If you only want the words with no Word file at all, PDF to Text saves a .txt file or copies the text to your clipboard.

Clean up the converted document

No converter turns every PDF into a perfect Word file, so plan a few minutes of tidying. These steps work in Word and in most other word processors.

• Show hidden marks. In Word, click the paragraph mark button (the pilcrow) on the Home tab. Stray line breaks in the middle of sentences become visible, and you can delete them.
• Apply styles. Select each heading and choose Heading 1 or Heading 2 from the Styles gallery. One click then changes the look of all headings, and Word can build a table of contents from them.
• Rebuild tables. Tables that came through as loose text are often faster to recreate with Insert, then Table, and paste the values cell by cell.
• Bring back images. On a Mac, Preview can copy part of a page as a picture with Tools, then Rectangular Selection, then Edit, then Copy. Paste it into the document where it belongs.
• Proofread numbers. Check prices, dates, account numbers and names against the PDF, especially after OCR, which can confuse similar shapes such as 0 and O or 1 and l.

Scanned PDF to Word: your options

A scanned PDF needs OCR before any editing is possible. Your realistic options are:

• Google Docs. Open with Google Docs reads the text of scans up to 2 MB. Split long scans into smaller files first.
• Microsoft Word. Microsoft notes that copier scans of book chapters often do not format well, and pages that are mostly graphics may stay images. Try it, but expect cleanup.
• Scan again with a better app. If you still have the paper, a phone scanner that saves searchable text gives better results than a dark photo. See how to scan documents on iPhone.
• Type it. For one short page of handwriting or a poor fax, typing is sometimes faster than fixing OCR mistakes.

Which method to pick

Whichever route you take, compare the result with the PDF page by page before you rely on it: numbers, names and dates are where conversion mistakes hurt most. When your edits are done, the guide on saving a Word document as a PDF shows how to turn it back into a PDF that looks right.

FAQ