PDF is a very popular type file that many companies are using for their documents. We remind you that the “Portable Document Format” has been created by Adobe back in the 90’s and it was used for presenting documents in order to look good across all platform and software.
On the other hand, “DOC” (or DOCX) is the file extension used mainly by Microsoft Word for the word processed documents. We need to mention that the two file formats are not compatible at all, meaning that you will never be able to open a DOC file with Adobe Reader.
Not many know, but you now have the possibility to edit a PDF format in Word. In fact this new feature has been implemented since Word 2013, where Microsoft has released a function named “PDF Reflow” that allows you to open a PDF file and edit it as you would edit a WORD DOCX file.
Unfortunately, there are some limitations, meaning that the PDF, which you will open in Word, will have al the content, but it will most likely not look exactly right. The reason that happens is because the PDFs are “fixed” files, meaning that the data is there, but the file doesn’t store the “relationship” between the data.
We will mention below a few things that will most likely not convert right from PDF to Word:
- Tables with cell spacing;
- Tracked changes;
- Frames;
- Page colors;
- Page borders;
- Footnotes that span more than one page;
- Audio, video and other PDF active elements;
- Endnotes;
- PDF bookmarks;
- PDF tags;
- PDF comments;
- Font effects (such as Shadow or Glow).
When you will try to open a PDF in Word you will receive a warning that will information you that the conversion might take a while and the resulting Word document will be optimized to allow you to edit the text. The same message informs that you the document might not look exactly like the original one, especially if the original file has many graphics.
Saving a file from Word 2013 (or newer version) to PDF is also simple, as you will just need to use the “Save As” option and there you will notice that you can save the document as “PDF.”
Using PDF In Older Versions Of Word
However, if you have installed Microsoft Word 2013 or earlier on your computer, we can say that you are in a bad luck as you will never be able to convert PDF files using it. The good news is that when the useful tools or websites come in handy.
There are many websites out there that are offering you the solution to convert from PDF to Word or Word to PFT. One of these websites is “PDFtoWord,” which you can easily Google and use it right away.
However, if you usually are not connected to the internet, we suggest you to download (as soon as you get a few minutes of internet) and install applications such as: PDFMate, UniPDF or WPS Office’s PDF to Word Converter Tool. These tools will allow you to convert PDF documents to Word while you are offline. Unfortunately, you will need to pay for these applications, but each one comes with a free trial, allowing you to try them out before you decide that you want to purchase them.
Conclusion
As long as you have Word 2013 or later don’t worry about converting PDF files, as you can do it right inside the application developed by Microsoft. However, if you have a really old Word version, then you will need to either convert the PDF files online or purchase an application that’s able to do it while you are offline.