Edit a PDF without retyping it
PDFs are great for sharing but awkward to change. Converting a PDF to Word gives you a
normal .docx file you can edit in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Apple Pages or
LibreOffice. Fix a typo in a letter, update last year's form, or reuse a few paragraphs
from a report, without copying and pasting line by line.
How to convert PDF to Word with SwapDoc
Drop your PDF in the box above. Or click the box to choose it. Files up to 25 MB are supported.
Click Convert to Word. SwapDoc rebuilds the pages as an editable Word document. This usually takes a few seconds, longer for long documents.
Open and tidy up.
Open the .docx in Word and check the layout. Simple documents are usually
ready to go; complex ones may need a few minutes of tidying.
What to expect
A PDF doesn't really contain paragraphs, headings or tables. It records where each line and image sits on the page. To make an editable document, the converter has to work out the structure again, so results depend on how the PDF was made.
Converts well
PDFs saved from Word or another word processor: letters, reports, essays and CVs with mostly plain text.
May need tidying
Magazine-style layouts, multiple columns, complex tables and designed brochures. These often come back with text in separate boxes. Our guide to fixing formatting after converting explains how to clean them up quickly.
Won't become editable text
Scanned documents and photos of pages. These are pictures of text, so the Word file will contain the picture. To get editable text you need OCR (text recognition). Our guide How to turn a PDF into an editable Word document shows a free way to do that.
PDF to Word questions
- Will the Word document look exactly like the PDF?
- Usually close, but not always identical. Simple text documents convert well; complex layouts may come back as text boxes that need tidying.
- Can I convert a scanned PDF?
- It will convert, but into a Word file containing a picture of each page rather than editable text, because SwapDoc doesn't do text recognition (OCR).
- Can I convert a password-protected PDF?
- No. Remove the password first in the program you normally open it with, if you're allowed to, then convert the unlocked copy.
- What format is the Word file?
- You get a
.docxfile, which opens in Microsoft Word 2007 or later, Google Docs, Apple Pages and LibreOffice.
Need the opposite?
Finished editing? Use the Word to PDF converter to turn it back into a PDF for sending.