In my previous comment it would seem that I laid all blame for undesirable conversion results on the creator of the original pdf.

While the creation of the original is the biggest factor, I neglected to add that the reason we try so many different conversion programs is that some are written to take into account more complex files, while others are not, so fault also lies with the conversion program and its claims of what it can and cannot handle, if any.

The bottom line still remains the same, though; the more complex the creation of the original pdf, the less desirable the converted result.

Didn't work on Vista with Office 2007 pages come out with Text diagonal across pages, a 12 page PDF Manual turned in th a 320 page Word Doc...USELESS.

Tried out with a 1.71mb pdf doc full of graphics. The output is amazingingly good. Simple yet mighty powerful. Thanks a lot.

Good to read the comments. Really helpful to decide whether to invest time to test the software. Thanks for all the feedback.Appreciated. Decided not to download.

Crap. Total crap, as usual. This site is like a tramp - gets you all excited and then delivers nothing good. Stay away.

#49: RTFs actually do not support many DOC features, such as text align justification.

Though the format of my converted pdf was simple the rendering into word was fast and accurate. It supported drag n' drop and offered to open the destination folder. For someone w/ limited computer experience this is thoughful design. I had spent time finding freeware to accomplish these PDF conversion tasks and few of the resources I uncovered showed this polish. I think this will be a good value for it's speed and accuracy. As a converter for more complicated pieces it may fail but that remains to be seen. OK for now- thanks giveawayoftheday.

I can't change its language.
I try to input a pdf file(0.7MB)，but it output a about 240MB rtf file.How large the rtf file is!

I DTD'd also. A simple 34 page PDF would result in access violation. What another piece of crap! Do you people even test 5this ?

Um, not an OCR
NOT AN OCR
program. This will NOT turn your JPEG/2k/PNG scans that you saved/printed in a PDF file into usable text.

#26, Andy Pandy, THANK-YOU !!! You gave me my first good laugh of the day with this:

" My Original PDF contains tables with a simple list of spare parts and their prices.
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090724-jkyp-81kb

After conversion with PDF2Word.
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090724-lm26-85kb "

...and with your summation: "...simple invoice PDF was converted into something resembling a music sheet from Mozart’s 5th piano concerto..."

ROFL!!!

This is similar to PDF Converter 2.0 which was a GOTD a few months ago, and which works fine for me so why download and install another one? But then if you haven't got the first one, then this is fine.

Is there any kind of software that will let you convert pdf to word and be able to edit the text?

Downloaded. Installed. Un-Installed. I converted a PDF and when I opened the text file there were only [] symbols. Doesn't work for me. Thanks anyway GOTD. Plus I use Open Office.

I have a program called PDF to Word that was a giveaway here, which only produces .rtf files, already installed, and since ZA prevented me from going to the publisher's site for today's giveaway I don't want to install this program. OH well, no biggie, I have so many of these converters already and the main reason I am posting is as follows..

The thing with these types of programs is that sometimes they will work, other times they won't, and the only factor is the pdf file itself. Was it created originally in a document editor and converted to pdf? Was it created as a pdf and in what program? What encoding was used? Are the fonts embedded? How many tables and layers were used?

If you don't know that, then you won't have much of a chance of an easy conversion. You will get garbage characters, weird layouts, and any number of problems which can make creating a new file from scratch easier than working out the problems with the converted file.

I speak from experience, we have a "graphics designer" we must use for our ads (related to one of the directors on our board - that kind of deal) who creates complex graphic ads - in Word - and then converts to pdf using command line. When all we need is just a date changed in the ad, she is usually not available, so we have tried every converter we could find to try and edit her pdfs. The best we found was PDFZilla, (which I believe I also got from GOTD) and that is used primarily to convert the pdfs to tifs for print ads.

Today's giveaway might perfectly convert some pdf files and produce nothing but garbage with others, and the fault likely is with the way the file was created, not the conversion program. However, the fact that ZA prevented me from accessing the publishers' site for this GOTD, though, is a big warning sign.

Any two-bit "pdf to something" converter can handle simple one column page layouts. Try throwing a multi-column PDF document at this and it make a complete mess of it. The many freeware converters (mentioned in the comments) make a better job of conversion. I DTD'd it! (Downloaded-Tried-Deleted)

I confirm it installs and works on XP 64bit

This software is JUNK the free online version does a far better job. I've use more than 15 to these type of utilities. The software from MediaVigor ( Giveaway of the Day – PDF Converter – March 2, 2009 ) is much better. I would like to for GOTD to offer this software again. Anyone would download this software from 3-2-09 will certainly agree what I'm trying to share. Blessings.

Kad-CAS produces consistently _horrible_ software. Dis me with lots of "thumbs down" if you want, but Truth hurts. I recently tried their PDF editor - it was incapable of converting simple line art that Adobe or Nuance had no trouble with. I've tried many of their titles and they all sucked compared to similarly-priced competition. Thumbs-DOWN from me

- Ric

DOC or RTF - what's the big deal? The Rich Text Format, which coincidently is also a MS development, is capable of everything that the native MS Word format is, except for macros. The only noticeable thing is that most of the time the file size is much bigger. So even though the program name is misleading the RTF output *as such* doesn't make it less useful.

#35 - This is to be expected: PDF (or rather Acrobat) embeds the fonts used within the document. That's one of the reasons PDFs are used at all. The user sees exactly the same thing on their PC as the designer (or whoever created the document). The converted document can *only* have the Chinese characters if you've got the same font installed on your system, which is highly unlikely. And of course, if the conversion program has been designed to handle such languages, which I also doubt considering the poor performance described by some users.

I can't believe people are whining about RTF output and how it's not Word format. Get a clue people. Word opens RTF just fine. And personally I prefer it as RTF is much more open and widely usable than .doc files are. If you want .doc files, you'll just have to suffer through the oh so complex task of opening it in Word (or OpenOffice Writer) and hit the File -> SaveAs button and choose .doc format.
How difficult is that.

If it looks like a duck, & quacks like a duck, & walks like a duck, then it's a PDF2Word converter...give me a break...the only thing this software may accomplish without multiple errors is the installation process...now if the developers could just get the app to follow suit we'd all be happier campers...these folks done licked the red off my weekend lollipop...not a good thing. - Doc

Ken (#35) - I'm Chinese - send those pdfs to me at mailto:pangchakfungadrianlasalle@yahoo.com.hk
and I'll hand convert them for you.

Use the one you released ages and ages ago from "quick-pdf.com", also called PDF to Word Converter. The interface sucked big-time but it did just what is said and did/does a super job. Later, I know one of my contracts purchased dozens of licenses. Given that, I look forward to using this one. The interface is a real explorer interface and I can grab documents much faster. Thanks!! (P.S. Works in Vista Business & Enterprise - but remember to install with a right-click choosing "Run as Administrator")

Hi,

Installed on Vista OS.

Text is garbage and images very bad resolution.

Uninstalled as it did a very bad job.

The ease of use is exellent but the result of converting pdf document is not as good.. sorry

Installed fine on XP Pro.

Has some bugs - does not handle bullets or special characters (like <, <=, etc). Sometimes the formatting is not replicated for tables.

PDF to Word - a previous GOTD is better.

#33, always uninstall programs with Revo Uninstaller - This ensures that no traces are left behind by the program.

I’ve used this program before and never had a problem with it. The only thing I didn’t really like was the *.rtf fixed output, but put up with it since I felt I didn’t have much choice. Then I came across a site that offered PDF online conversion services that I’ve been using for a couple of months. Based on that experience I can honestly say the conversions have been right-on. They’re also able to work with the OpenOffice suite, which I think is a nice recognition that contrary to popular belief there does exist other office type applications. They also offer Excel conversions. This is the description by the publisher:

Using our PDF-to-Word conversion technology, you can quickly and easily create editable DOC/RTF files, making it a cinch to re-use PDF content in applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and WordPerfect. Best of all, it's entirely free!

http://www.pdftoword.com/

http://www.pdftoexcelonline.com/

@#18 anewbe - Thanks for posting your comment regarding a security issue and advising caution! It’s good to take that kind of stuff serious especially if has something to do with spyware. It’s not as if there’s never been a GOTD that came with a nag, or had the requirement of giving out your email address for the registration key, etc...

Tried this program, but the converted document was so garbled it was unreadable
for the most part. There is no use for such a program.

Hi,
Something I forgot to mention in my previous comment #26 which is the difference between RTF and DOC extension files.

RTF (Rich Text Format) is an enhancement of the basic TXT file formatting, which means you can have fancy text, insert bullet points and paragraphs etc and is designed to be opened by a variety of word processors on varying platforms.

With DOC extension files you can have all of the RTF features and more, embed pictures/graphs, tables and other stuff into document along with text.

DOC is much richer than RTF which can only handle a small subset of Word's features, DOC however is more or less a binary dump of MS Words internal data structures and therefore is not compatible with many other other word processors, Open Office of course can manage DOC files.

I think therefore that it's very misleading for them to call their product PDF2Word as one would expect it to handle the rich set of DOC features, and of course it does not.

Another failed attempt of PDF conversion. I makes me wonder of some of the software develpers even try out their own software. Then hey would know it is not worth using.... WHen you have to re-do what you convert, it is easier just to start from scratch.

Installed, ran on Win 7 RC, converted several PDF files, all unacceptable due to poor conversion, uninstalled. Some day some one will write some software that actully will convert PDF to DOC that is as good as the original PDF. But this is not it.

I have tried a couple of these products in the past and found them great for standard documents in English. For example, when a CD has a brochure or manual in PDF format. My problem is when I use this type of software to convert pages that have foreign language characters. In my case, I was trying to convert language learning PDFs that accompany my CDs into Word. In this case, it was CDs for learning Mandarin. The English phrases came out fine but the Chinese characters came out as blank boxes and triangles. Although I can always use the PDF files, I like being able to have things like that in Word since I can change the font size and make them easier to see. In addition, I can print them out in that larger size which is great for studying.
Does anyone know if this product can handle such a task? Is there a ready solution ? I should point out that my PC itself is running Windows XP and that I did install support for far East characters and that browsing web sites and reading Word documents that have Chinese characters on them is not a problem.

@ Bubby #3:

There's a broader review of Best Free PDF Tools over on Gizmo's Freeware:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-pdf-tools.htm#Specific-Tools

- As a standalone program, Gizmo's reviewer, JojoYee, recommends Some PDF To Word Converter:
http://www.somepdf.com/some-pdf-to-word-converter.html

- As an online solution, JojoYee recommends Nitro: http://www.pdftoword.com/
Elsewhere (http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-convert-pdf-files-word-doc-files-free.htm), Gizmo himself recommends both Zamzar and Koolwire:
http://www.zamzar.com/
http://www.koolwire.com/Default.aspx

I was looking for a software like so go all excited when I saw this here. But this is by far the worst PDF to Word converter I have seen.
First of all why is this thing converting to .rtf instead of .doc?????
then I should oh well I can really transfer that to .doc file, but conversion was totally horrible, it's like layered and all distorted. Can't do nothing with it!

Does not uninstall well. It left "PDF to Word 3" directory in Program files.
and three files ending in.dat

installed on vista 64 bit but messed up the text on export of a simple pdf with some pictures in it.

I tried this and got very poor results even with text pdf files. Compared to PDF Zilla and Quick pdf2word this program is not doing a good job at all. I also wonder why they include tools to edit the pdf files if the changes is not included in the rtf output files ....

hi!!!!!!
the software provided for pdf to word convertion is not up to the mark..text conversion is quite ok but any graphic or image covertion a big no no.. it needs more research work to overcome the problem before product launch to retain company's goodwill...
regards,

SOUMEN MONDAL

I just tried this and although it does only convert to .rtf - all you then need to do if you have word is open it and then simply use the "SaveAs" function in Word to save it as an MSWord .doc.

So although that is an extra step, for free this isn't all that bad.

The great thing is that .rtf is readable in more than just Word, so if you don't have MSWord you can still use this freebie to convert the hated PDF to a useable format, and then opening it in... anything that can read .rtf.

Brilliant!

Installed in XP PRO w/ SP3.
I am visiting GAOTD by now almost an year and this was the first installation 100% good/easy/nice/etc.
All other software should do like this.
Just for the installation I give to "PDF to Word 3.0" 100 thumbs up.

This is the first time as a long time GAOD user, that I have ever posted a comment. I have always appreciated the fantastic work that the team does, and in the main everything I try seems useful in one way or another but, I`m sorry this just does not cut it for me, what I got back was not a doc. file, but a rtf. file which word then has to convert to use. what the result is a total rearrangment of the original. Not this time for me I`m afraid. But after all said and done, full praise to the GAOD team for the opportunity to try some great products.

Hi,
Installed and activated fine on 32 bit XP Pro sp3.

I'm always interested to see the output quality of programs such as this as I do a fair bit of PDF converting and the product I use works but isn't perfect.

I was amazed at the output from PDF2Word, but don't take my word for it, I've included some screen shots..

My Original PDF contains tables with a simple list of spare parts and their prices.
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090724-jkyp-81kb

After conversion with PDF2Word.
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090724-lm26-85kb

For added interest I've included a shot of another program I use, it's $40 but does the job (sort of) and it shows that the conversion of my test PDF is possible. Coincidently this is also called PDF2Word but it's from VeryPDF.
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090724-v4n5-130kb

An observation I made. It's called PDF2Word when it should really be called PDF2SomethingThatWordMayOpen, ie RTF (Rich Text Format). In conjunction with the fact that my simple invoice PDF was converted into something resembling a music sheet from Mozart's 5th piano concerto ensured uninstallation and a resounding thumbs down.
Regards,
Andy

Were no problems downloading or setting the program up on my Vista running PC. It really doesn't work the way I had hoped. I can open up the pdf and I can 'edit' it, but what I found was that all I could do is move words around on the page (as if there were many mini-pictures on the page and each word were a picture - I could not edit the word, I could just move the entire word in a block), which isn't really helpful for me but might be for someone.

First, the name is misleaing. Instead of PDF to Word 3.0, It should be called PDF to RTF 3.0. RTF is siply a readable format for MS Word & I'm quitw sure Open Office. An RTF File can be changed/modified, But you'll still have to copy & paste it on a blank word sheet to truly have it in Word.
Still, all in all, not a bad give away especially if your in need of such an app.

here are some tips for freeware alternatives fans
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/PDF/Free-PDF-to-Word-Converter.shtml
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/PDF/-1-Free-PDF-to-Word-Converter.shtml

The first two PDF files produced gibberish; it needs some work!

did not convert to word in vista home premium well

It has a somewhat complicated interface and it did crash for a few moments, though it became alright in a few moments. Once you check out some of the features,it's actually kind of easy to use. It is also possible to edit the pdf. A good software with bad looks.
Rating : 6/10

I haven’t downloaded this because I already have it. If, as some have commented, it converts to .rtf then it is the free trial version. The full version converts to .doc ,not the latest .docx. Even then it's far from perfect.

I use Zone Alarm Firewall set at a midpoint security level. It stops my browser (Firefox 3.5.1 and IE 8) from accessing this developer’s web site and send up a spyware blocking message as the reason. It may or may not be a false positive; I’m looking into it right now but Caution Is Advised people!