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How to convert a PDF to Word and Excel
Turn fixed PDF pages into editable .docx and .xlsx files
Why conversion is not perfect
A PDF is a description of where each piece of text and each image sits on a page. It does not store paragraphs, tables or columns the way a Word file does. A converter therefore has to guess the structure from positions. Good conversions get the guess right most of the time, but you should always read the result before you rely on it.
PDF to Word
The PDF to Word tool reads fonts, bold and italic styling, sizes, page dimensions, images and tables, then writes a .docx. It detects both ruled tables (with lines) and tables made only of aligned columns, and rebuilds multi-column layouts. After downloading, open the file in Word, LibreOffice or Google Docs and check headings, table borders and page breaks.
PDF to Excel
The PDF to Excel tool places each page on its own worksheet. Detected table columns become real columns, amounts and percentages become numbers instead of text, and images are kept in position. It works best on statements, invoices and price lists that were created digitally.
Scanned documents
If a PDF is a scan or a photograph, there is no text to read. Those pages come through as pictures. To get editable text from a scan you need optical character recognition (OCR), which FirePDF does not currently provide.
Getting better results
- Start from the original digital PDF if you can, not a printout that was scanned again.
- Convert a few pages first to see how the layout survives before converting a long file.
- Fonts that are not installed on your computer will be replaced by a similar one.
- After converting to Excel, check totals against the PDF. Number detection is helpful but not a substitute for a quick review.
Everything described here runs inside your browser tab. Your files are not uploaded to a server, which you can confirm by turning off your internet connection after the page has loaded and running the tool again.
More help: all FirePDF guides.