Convert PDF to Word

A PDF stores text as separate, positioned fragments with no real paragraphs, columns or tables. Filevolo reads where every fragment sits on the page and works the structure out from that: lines are joined into paragraphs, bigger or bolder lines become headings, bullets and numbers become lists, columns of aligned text become tables, and text set in two columns is read one column after the other. The result is a standard .docx you can open in Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice or Pages and edit.

Carried over: text, headings, bulleted and numbered lists, simple tables, bold and italic, centered and right-aligned lines, the document font style (serif, sans-serif or monospace), and the page size. A paragraph that runs across a page break is joined back together, and a table that continues on the next page is one table.

Not carried over: pictures and graphics (use Extract Images from PDF to save them), exact fonts, colors and positions, page headers, footers and page numbers (repeating ones are removed on purpose), and form fields. A PDF is a picture of a page while a Word file is a flowing document, so complicated layouts, such as brochures, magazines and forms, will need tidying afterwards. This is a text-first converter, not a pixel copy.

A scanned page is only a picture, so there is no text to read. Run it through OCR PDF first, which adds a text layer, and then convert the result. Pages with no text are listed so you know which ones were left out.