Why Formatting Changes When You Convert, and How to Fix It
Most conversions between Word and PDF come out looking right. When they don't, it's nearly always one of a handful of causes. Find your problem below for the cause and the quickest fix.
Word to PDF problems
The font looks different
Why: a converter can only use fonts installed on the computer doing the conversion. If your document uses a font that isn't there, a similar one is used instead, which can change spacing and push text onto extra pages.
Fix: use widely available fonts such as Arial, Calibri, Cambria, Georgia, Times New Roman or Verdana. If you must keep a special font, make the PDF on your own computer using File → Save As → PDF in Word, which uses your installed fonts (see How to convert Word to PDF).
There's an extra blank page
Why: usually an empty paragraph or a page break at the very end of the document, or a table that ends at the bottom of a page (Word always puts a paragraph after a table).
Fix: in Word, click Home → ¶ (Show/Hide) to see hidden marks, then delete empty paragraphs and page breaks at the end. If the culprit is the paragraph after a table, select it and set its font size to 1.
Pictures have moved
Why: pictures set to float "in front of" or "behind" text are positioned relative to a paragraph. If the text reflows slightly, the picture moves with it.
Fix: right-click the picture, choose Wrap Text → In Line with Text, and position it with normal paragraph alignment. In-line pictures stay put.
Text runs off the edge or a table is cut off
Why: a table or picture is wider than the page margins.
Fix: select the table, then Layout → AutoFit → AutoFit Window. For pictures, resize them to fit inside the margins.
PDF to Word problems
Everything is in separate text boxes
Why: a PDF records where each line sits on the page, not which lines belong together. To keep the look, the converter sometimes places text in positioned boxes.
Fix: for short documents, it's often quickest to select all (Ctrl + A, or Cmd + A on a Mac), copy, and paste into a new document with Paste → Keep Text Only. Then re-apply headings and bold text. For long documents, try opening the PDF directly in Word, which uses a different method and may give a cleaner result for some files.
Lines break in the middle of sentences
Why: each line of the PDF was turned into its own paragraph.
Fix: use Replace (Ctrl + H). In
Find what type ^p and in Replace with type a space to join
lines. To keep real paragraph breaks, first replace ^p^p with a placeholder
like ###, then replace ^p with a space, then replace
### with ^p.
Tables come out as loose text
Why: some PDFs draw tables as separate lines and text, with no table behind them.
Fix: if the columns are separated by tabs or spaces, select the text and use Insert → Table → Convert Text to Table. For a large table, copying it into a spreadsheet first can be easier.
Strange characters or missing letters
Why: some PDFs use fonts that don't record which character each shape represents, so the converter can't tell which letter is which.
Fix: treat the PDF like a scan and use text recognition (OCR). Our guide to turning a PDF into an editable Word document shows a free way to do it with Google Docs.
The text can't be edited at all
Why: the PDF is a scan or a photo, so each page is a picture.
Fix: use OCR, as above.
Habits that prevent most problems
- Build documents with Word's styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Normal) rather than manual formatting.
- Keep pictures "In Line with Text" unless you really need them to float.
- Use common fonts for anything you'll share or convert.
- Always keep the original Word file. Editing the original and making a fresh PDF is better than converting a PDF back and forth.