PDF to Word

[seamusdoone2]

Hello I converted a PDF to word but now cannot work on the file in Word it basically pasted the file as a picture onto Word. Can anyone help me with this?

[Stefan Blom]

You'll need OCR software which can convert the file into a format that Word can edit (*.doc or *.rtf). Perhaps you have a scanner? Scanners usually come with (basic) OCR software.

[macropod]

Hi seamusdoone2,

Have you tried simply copying the PDF's contents as text and pasting into Word?

[seamusdoone2]

Yes I did try this and it did not work, thank you for your responses

[macropod]

Care to provide more details about what didn't work? Did you have the text selection tool active, or only the region selection tool?

[seamusdoone2]

I have a basic form and I have lines, logos, check boxes, pictures, etc. When I copied this info from the pdf I used the OCR recognition to copy the info and then I tried pasting it into the Word file but that did not transfer the images. I am not overly familiar with the text selection tool could you explain that?

[macropod]

Some of the Acrobat tool names vary, depending on which version you're using. Perhaps I've confused things by referring to tool names not on the latest version (Reader X). In Acrobat Reader X, I believe the default is for text selection/copying, and you can right-click the toolbar to add the snapshot tool.

When you do text selection, you can select individual letters/words/lines/paragraphs, etc., but not graphics. Thus, you can copy the text from the PDF and paste it into a Word document. If you want graphics as well, you can use the snapshot tool to select the desired region and copy that as an image for pasting into the Word document.

Of course, if the PDF is itself just a multipage TIFF image or the like, with no real text, then all you'll have available for selection is a graphic - even though it might look like text. In that case, anything you copy/export from the PDF may not be editable in Word. It can get a bit confusing at this point because, in some multipage TIFF PDFs, you can actually select the text. When you export these files to Word, what you may end up with is an image overlaying the text, which is hidden behind it.

Can you post a copy of the PDF, or a link to it, so we can see what kind it is?

[seamusdoone2]

I cannot do that sorry. I saved a copy of this as a JPEG from Photoshop where I wrote all the text out.