What you should know
PDF to Word turns a fixed document into editable text, to correct a contract received as a PDF, rework a report or reuse content without retyping it.
A PDF contains no paragraphs, only characters placed on the page. FileXvert rebuilds the document on its server: paragraphs grouped, headings detected by their size, bold and italics, tables recreated as real Word tables, images kept. The file is sent to our server over an encrypted connection, after a notice shown before upload, converted in an isolated service with no Internet access, then deleted as soon as the result is returned.
Strengths
- Editable text, with paragraphs, headings, bold and italics
- Tables detected and recreated as Word tables
- The PDF's images kept in the document
- A scanned page is kept as an image rather than lost
Limitations to know
- The layout is not identical: columns, exact positions and spacing are simplified
- Scanned PDFs do not become editable text (no OCR)
- Forms, annotations and original fonts are not carried over
- The file leaves your device for the duration of the conversion
When to use it
Convert to Word to edit the content of a PDF whose source you do not have. If you have the original Word file, start from it: it will always be more faithful than a reconstruction.
Quality, size and compatibility
On a PDF produced by a word processor, the result is a clean, editable document whose structure follows the original. Presentation is simplified: Word's default font, no columns. Proofread complex tables, which may be split differently.
Frequently asked questions
- Will the Word document match the PDF?
- No: the content is kept and structured, but the layout is simplified. The goal is editable text, not a pixel-perfect copy.
- What happens to a scanned PDF?
- Its pages are kept as images in the Word document. To get editable text, you first need character recognition (OCR) software.