I need to convert a PDF to Word so the client can edit text but… text is not editable in Pages. I don’t have Word so can’t check but is this a common problem?
Thanks.
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It’s a common problem in misguided workflows.
Once the output is PDF, it’s too late for the client to edit text, and if client-edit of the finished piece was part of the job scope, PDF output was never a proper solution.
Here again, if Word-format output was sought, then a practitioner who is not equipped with Word was not an appropriate solution, and it was that practitioner’s responsibility to acquire legal access to the necessary application or refuse the job.
If the specific needs of the client were not brought to light until after the project was output, this is another failing of the practitioner, and precisely what I initially characterized as “misguided workflow.”
Thanks HotButton,
Client presented me with a design in PDF they want me to re-create as a Word document.
I hate Word, wouldn’t know how to properly design in it.
I solved the problem by converting the PDF online, this way the converted file stays editable for some reason while converting it in Acrobat Pro it doesn’t.
So a free online tool does a better job at what I pay Adobe for monthly…
Ah, one of those.
Well it is a word processor, and fulfills that role very capably. No one can “properly design” in it, unless the objective is to design a word-processed document. Your hatred is wasteful.
To an extent, that depends on the PDF and the constructs that were input. Acrobat produces an editable Word file here at my desk, provided the text in the PDF is live to begin with. In any case, it’s not really a “conversion,” as much as it is an export to the Word format. There are many possibilities for features and characteristics of type and graphics in a PDF with content that originated in, say, InDesign, that would be unsupported in Word. Of course a client requesting backward output to Word from PDF wouldn’t necessarily understand the nuances or their significance, but suffice it to say the result won’t be faithful to the original design.
Well, to be fair, and at the risk of being thought an Adobe apologist, I’d say you indeed are not paying Adobe for Microsoft Word output from Adobe software.
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Thanks for your elaborate answer.
Have a look at this developer site, they have some awesome software.
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Yikes.
As someone who works quite often with PDFs and the results of even an Adobe conversion, if you use any of those converters out of necessity, be darn sure your output doesn’t suffer. Indesign PDFs can do some terrible things to gradients and placed patterns sometimes, especially if they originated as placed Illustrator files…
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lol Yes, I had to convert the entire background to one big jpeg otherwise everything looked messed up. Luckily I almost never get this request!!!
Use online PDF converters: Several free and paid online PDF converters offer conversion to Word format.
Like - Adobe Acrobat online tool, PDF Insider, PDF UP
Usually the best solution is to use Microsoft Word to convert the PDF file to .docx format, which allows you to save an editable text layer. Word is usually better suited to handling PDF files and saving them in an editable format.
If you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can try using online services to convert PDF to Word, such as Smallpdf, PDF2DOC, or Adobe Acrobat Online. These services allow you to download a PDF file and get it in an editable Word format.
Just gonna point out that the OP posted SIX YEARS AGO…
Zombie thread and the OP hasn’t been back here since 2020
Closing this up. And @allanmaxd - You have signed up with a new name so I have deactivated your old acct. (johnsmith3)