Overview

This tutorial outlines how to convert a PDF into an editable Word document and will cover two methods: scanning directly into PDF and converting an existing PDF.  During the process you will see "ocr" used.  This stands for optical character recognition and basically refers to the process by which the computer translates an image of printed text and converts it to machine-editable text.

This tutorial assumes you have Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional.

Scanning a Document to a PDF with OCR Conversion and Exporting to Word

Scanning to a PDF

1. Open Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional.
2. From the File menu choose Create PDF > From Scanner.
3. In the Text Recognition and Metadata section check the boxes next to Make Searchable (Run OCR) and Make Accessible.

   

    

4. Next, click the Options button next to Make Searchable.
5. Next to PDF Output Style select Formatted Text & Graphics from the dropdown.  Click OK.

   

    

6. Now, click Scan.

   Note: the scan may take much longer than normal as the software goes throught the recognition and conversion process.

Export the PDF to Microsoft Word

1. With your new PDF open in Adobe Acrobat choose File > Export > Word Document.
2. Choose your save location and click Save.  Your document is now ready to be edited in Microsoft Word. 

Converting an Existing PDF to an Editable Word Document

 

Convert a PDF to Word

1. Open Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional.
2. From the File menu choose Open and open the PDF file you wish to convert.
3. From the Document menu choose OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR

   

    

4. From the Recognize Text window make sure that the PDF Output Style is set to Formatted Text & Graphics.  If not, click Edit and change that setting.  Click OK.
5. Acrobat will go throught the recognition and conversion process.  This could take awhile depending on the length of the document.

Export the PDF to Microsoft Word

 

1. With your new PDF open in Adobe Acrobat choose File > Export > Word Document.
2. Choose your save location and click Save.  Your document is now ready to be edited in Microsoft Word.