Converting an Adobe Acrobat PDF file into a Word document

The May 15th issue of the Support Alert newsletter has an interesting article on converting PDF files into Word documents. Initially, the newsletter author, Ian Richards, tested a couple free online conversion services, then he got readers with seven different commercial products to convert his sample document.

He called the results "fascinating" and found that "the products varied markedly". The most expensive product produced one the worst conversions. Overall, he likes Zamzar, a free web-based conversion service, saying "Most users who have only a casual need to convert PDFs to DOC should save their pennies and use Zamzar rather than buy a commercial product." The list of file types that Zamar converts from and to is huge.

The original PDF used for the tests was posted at techsupportalert.com, but it's no longer there. So, I searched news.com and ran across a PDF formatted profile of someone named Kathy White (I haven't read the document) from 2002 that seemed like it might be hard to convert. You can see the results of the Zamzar conversion here michaelhorowitz.com/zamzar.test.white.doc.

Looks pretty good to me.

Update. June 5, 2008: Someone just told me about another review of PDF to Word software and services at www.freewaregenius.com, How to convert PDF to Word DOC for free: a comparative test. The comparison testing, done in March 2008, included six products, all freeware. The favorite was the Koolwire.com service.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

[ruminator]

Being "free" isn't everything. Often you get what you pay for. I'm perfectly satisfied with Nuance's PDF Converter Pro which retains tables and other formatting very precisely. From the image posted, Zamzar is in "beta?" It may be "free" but I'll let MH and others be the test dummies. At the very least, wait 18 months for it to mature, if you can't afford commercial software. BTW if you own your own copy of a commercial PDF converter you share the conversions with no one--100% secure. And it would not be subject to the hacker attack Zamzar suffered, not be slow, and not require going online. Occasional converting is no excuse to scrimp and ignore security.

[RobEZ1]

Can't believe Zamzar is even being considered. However odd that a company called download.com is reviewing a hosted app, I have to think otherwise. Zamzar gave me a blank document when I tried to convert and then I tried a product listed on your site, (deskUNPDF Professional) and had much better success.

[mhinnewyork]

This posting is a heads-up pointing to original research done elsewhere. Michael Horowitz

[amajzoub]

Hi,

did you try http://www.youconvertit.com maybe they are better than zamzar, i never faced a problem with them

Also they provide bigger file size

Updat me

[mhinnewyork]

I have not done the research on this, you want to contact Ian Richards the author of the articles in question. Michael Horowitz

[uphalguni]

[doctorbrian]