Comparison of Free PDF to Word Converters

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Is it possible to convert PDF to Word Documents for free? Yes, absolutely. If you've googled "how to convert PDF to Word for free", I am pretty sure you've gotten literally hundreds of resources. However, are the resources really workable? I don't think so. Take the quality of the output Word document into consideration, you should choose a PDF to Word converter carefully. In this article, we're going to do a comparative test among famous online free PDF to Word Converters and desktop free PDF to Word converters.

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List of free PDF to Word Converters :

• Online version: Wondershare Free PDF to Word Online, Google Documents, NitroPDF PDF to Word
• Desktop version: Wondershare PDF to Word Converter Free, SmartSoft Free PDF to Word Converter, SomePDF Free PDF to Word

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A few issues to address

• Will the output Word document be editable once it is converted? I have to say "Yes". 99% of output Word document is editable since this is the main reason why people convert PDF to Word documents. However an exception is that the PDFs you convert are scanned ones. In this case, generally the content in the output Word is image. You'd never be able to edit the text on the Word doc unless you convert the scanned PDF to Word with OCR technology based PDF converter, say Wondershare PDF Converter Pro.
• Will the output Word document be compatible with any Office software, like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Google Document, etc? It is hard to say here. Almost all output Word documents are compatible with Microsoft Word, Google Document. But as for other Office suite, it depends. Here the objective is to get a converted Word document (both .doc and .docx) that could be editable in Microsoft Word.
• It is available to convert to images? No. In this article, we're not cover the topic of converting PDF to images. If you really need to extract images from PDF or convert PDF to images, try Wondershare PDF Converter.
• Documents used in the conversion tests: To perform this test briefly, I used two PDF files. One is a native PDF file that contains hyperlinks, images and graphics. Another one is a scanned PDF with a two –column text, images and graphics.

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Overview of online free PDF to word converters

#1:Free PDF to Word Converter from Wondershare. It is a totally free, but fully functional online PDF to Word converter. The quality of the output Word document is superior. Though it is a beta version, it seems many people like it so much. And it provides users several options for the output Word document: Word 2007-2010, Word 2003 and RTF.

1. Supported PDFs: local PDFs and online PDFs
2. How it works: You can upload a local PDF or copy and paste the URL of an online PDF. For PDF under 10MB, the moment you perform the conversion, you get the output Doc.
3. OCR support: None
4. Reliability: Excellent.
5. Privacy: After the conversion, the uploaded PDF will be deleted instantly. As for the output Word documents, they will be deleted within 24 hours.
6. Strength: Preserves the original file layout, text and image perfectly.
7. Weakness: It is not able to convert a PDF that more than 10MB
8. Results: I give 9/10 overall. The text and images in the original PDF are greatly preserved.

#2: Google Document is more than a Word Process. It is a file converter as well. The moment you upload a file, it will remind you of converting it into Google Docs format. So in this case, it is a free PDF to Word converter, too.

1. How it works: When you upload a PDF in Google Document, a pop up will come up, asking you to convert text from PDF and image files to Google documents. If you tick the option, then when you open the uploaded PDF in Google Docs, it will in Google documents format, .doc.
2. OCR support: Yes.
3. Reliability: excellent
4. Strength: It supports OCR to convert scanned PDF to doc.
5. Weakness: sometimes the output Word document is not well-arranged. You have to arrange it manually. And the images in the original PDF are lost during the converting process.
6. Results: I give 8.5/10 overall since it is able to recognize the text in scanned PDF.

#3:Nitro PDF to Word Converter: a totally free online PDF to Word converter. One of my friend said it is one of the best conversion engines. However, I beg to be a little different.

1. How it works:As you might see how simple it is to convert PDF to Word by using the Nitro PDF to Word. Once you locate a local PDF file, enter your email and hit the Convert to Word button, it is done.
2. OCR support: none.
3. Reliability: variable. I failed three times in uploading the PDF file. I do not know why. It might caused by the crappy Internet or Nitro PDF's server.
4. Strength: The quality of the output Word document is good.
5. Weakness:It really pissed me off. After the conversion, I checked my Gmail for the output Word document, but I did not get instantly. I had to wait for a long time for the Word document being sent to my Gmail.
6. Results: I give 7.5/10 overall.

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Overview of online free PDF to word converters

#4 Wondershare PDF to Word Converter Free: a user-friendly desktop PDF to Word converter. It is said it is the number 1 free PDF to Word converter in the market. It converts PDF file to Word document without any restriction.

1. Interface: simple, easy and straightforward. Allow users to perform drag-n-drop.
2. Commercial use: Yes.
3. Download size: 6.4MB
4. OCR support: none.
5. Strengths: Excellent output quality. Images, text and formatting are greatly preserved.
6. Weakness:The font of the output text is not beautiful.
7. Results: I give Wondershare PDF to Word Converter Free a 9/10. This is a professional PDF to Word converter. The output doc will look almost like the original one.