Simplo kindly sent me a registration code, and the program registered okay, but won't convert anything but the simplest files.

I could have re-typed my files in the time I've spent trying to get this program to work. (Sigh...)

I do appreciate their helpful response, tho.

Trying to register Simpo PDF to Word is not working! Running XP Pro SP3, with plenty of disk space and memory. Same problem as commenter #2. I run setup.exe, do NOT start the program, then run activate.exe, and get the GOTD page that says it's been successfully activated, and STILL get "unregistered version." Even turning off AV and uninstalling completely (with Revo uninstaller) and then redoing it completely doesn't make any difference.

And where is this pdf2word_regfile.reg file that's mentioned by Simpo in Software Informer? It's not with the install files, and not in the folder where the program is installed.

Please somebody help soon, as I would like to try this product, and the giveaway is over in 40 mins. (I've emailed Simpo Tech Support also.)

In my tests the

"as it is able to convert the read-only PDF file to editable Microsoft Word," part is promised it did not convert it so I could edit the pdf - now word document.

I had a couple of old reference letters I tested with this. They had a simple letterheat with basic times new roman - 12 font.

Did it convert from pdf to word document? YES
Did it convert the image to an editable text? NO

Uninstalled via reboot.

A couple of points. It's true what a number of people have complained about here, *no* developer can seem to produce a practicable and dependable PDF converter. You can pick almost any one at random and you'll get results ranging from fair to complete gibberish.

However, there is a very specific reason for this. PDF is not a "descriptive" and textual file format, like XML for example. It is a binary, non-human-readable format, for which Adobe has never published the spec. So over the years, software writers have had to "reverse engineer" the format in order to take a crack at devising a conversion algorithm. Some have had more success than others, but they will always just be "hacks." That's just the way it is; Adobe intended PDF to be a "final" file format, not an open intermediate one. After you consider all this you should be willing to cut a lot of these developers some slack for their efforts.

Please note that the statement about the poor performance of conversion programs is meant to apply strictly to text-based PDFs (i.e., ones in which the content is actual selectable text), NOT to documents which have been scanned. A PDF produced from scanning contains no actual text, because the scan is essentially just a photograph. To convert this type of PDF requires OCR software, which is a different domain altogether than the usual "PDF-to-Word" applications, including todays giveaway.

That's why poster #25, JerryW, is confused when he says "Without OCR built in, you can never achieve great conversions." He is mixing up the two technologies. OCR is needed to convert a scan-based PDF, but would contribute NOTHING to a PDF that is *already* text based--which is the type of PDF which the vast majority of giveaways here are designed to work with, including today's.

Here's what I do when I need to get at the text in a PDF: I simply select it and paste it into a word processor or text editor. Sure, it's inelegant, and you lose formatting, but it's mostly no worse than what you get with a lot of "conversion" programs....

Also, if anyone is interested, there is a very good program which converts PDFs (text-based) to the ePub format. (I convert a lot of PDFs, but I'm not usually interested in converting them to Word, I usually want to convert them to ePub so that I can read them like a normal "book" on my tablet or phone--I hate reading PDFs on mobile devices). The program is ePUBator [http://sourceforge.net/projects/epubator/]. It's free of course, but the only catch is that it works only on Android.

It handles single-column PDFs with complete aplomb, but can unfortunately have issues with multi-column files or ones with tables. However, it has no problems with embedded graphics, although it adds them to the end of the page. Now, I'd rather do my conversions on a computer, but all in all, this app does a better job than most desktop programs I've tried (better than the Calibre plug-in for example), which is ironic because tablets are not known to be primary productivity devices!

BTW, even if you are not interested in an ePub file as your final conversion format, you can always just unpack the ePub and use the contained HTML files for further tweaking, including loading them into a word processor.

I'm hoping this advice is of some use for someone.

Robert

To all Giveawayoftheday’s users,
You can easily follow the below mentioned steps to register the program, remember it is recommended to run the program under administrator account.
Installation Guide:
1. Unzip the package you’ve downloaded in GOTD;
2. Run Setup.exe in the package to install the software;
3. Then cilck pdf2word_regfile.reg to register the program.
Please note: Simpo PDF to Word is a very clean program, it does not contain viruses, you can safely install and use. Of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us: support@simpotech.com.

This program does not convert to MS Word. It converts to text or wordpad. I am uninstalling this program as I wanted to convert a PDF to WORD, not word pad or text.
Thanks for the opportunity to try it. I wasted a lot of time installing and then searching to find the conversion that wasnt the one I wanted = Word.

Does not activate (Win7 x64). Every time i try a message pops up "unsupported reg file format" then setup says "succeyyfully activated" but it is NOT!!!

For those who have problems handling a PDF to RTF conversion with hard return (¶) at the end of every line. You know you can just do a search and replace of ^p to ALT20 or whatever you require! (Look up Alt Codes) - Otherwise this giveaway works well. If a PDF conversion results in blank RTF pages then the PDF may be just a series of images and not postscript text. Hope this helps ginz#19

I did a number of pdf files & the program operated very well. My problem with the program (as well others) I am a little older - retired baby-boomer - & I NEED to see words to operate programs. Yes I understand everyone else is "trying" (& that's what they are - TRYING!) pics - but, if I have to hunt & peck through all the pics - I'd rather not do that program. I am not saying it should be the first thing that pops out - but having an optional 'menu bar' with pull down word menus would be a great 'option' to offer under configuration "pic". Anyways, I use Win 8.1 & have Office 2010 & of course running I7 CPU & 8 GBs RAM - installed & activated .. no problem, tried 7 docs (that weren't the operation's manual from the author) and they ranged from single letters To a catalogue from a music supply house (the catalogue had some overlaps, but I was able to separate pics from text and I really enjoyed this workout today. Thanks GAOTD & Simpo for today's offering & I hope my suggestion helps.

@20. Sandra
Hello Sandra,
I know this missing feature of clickable hyperlinks in PDfs made from
websites very well.
For me I found a great addon for my firefox-browser to manage this.
The Print pages to Pdf (Firefox AddOn) let me grab just the parts of a site I wish to be printed as PDF and - the hyperlinks will be kept.
Take a look to the Homepage:
http://printpdf.pf-control.de/index.php/de/help.html

@ 2. Susan

Hello Susan, maybe your activating fails because of your operating system (XP, not Win 7 or above),
Try to open the file "Registration.reg" with an editor and delete the both phrases "Wow6432Node\" and save the file.
Don´t touch the other lines.

So you´ll get two changed lines looking like this:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{FB277152-DC04-4CE8-B398-D855BD6DC454}]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{FB277152-DC04-4CE8-B398-D855BD6DC454}\Info]

Then doubleclick this file "Registration.reg" to activate your installed program-

hope, this helps!

Without OCR built in, you can never achieve great conversions. It will take twice as much time to edit it and fix the fields than if you just have it done with copy and paste.
It would be much better solution if SIMPO concentrate on working on PDF editor than conversions.

For those that believe online conversion is great, try it (if you feel that it is safe enough). Most of the time, the converter ends up having some malicious BS attached to it that tries to infect your computer (I know, I've tried many online converters). Some, however, are not bad like that, but I definitely don't like to use online converters for my documents. The only online converter I use is YouTube to MP3.

@18 Sandra, you could give Winnovative Free HTML to PDF Converter a try:

http://download.cnet.com/Winnovative-Free-HTML-to-PDF-Converter/3000-18497_4-10691753.html?tag=dre

Cheers,

R.

Did not install SimpoPDF. Other PDF convert software previously given away by GOTD is better.

#19 ginz
The common problem is the program’s insertion of a hard return (¶) at the end of every line. Still not solved.

This is easily solved.
Go into the Ms Word document that was the output of the PDF conversion.
Click Ctrl A to select all.
Click [Format] on the main menu of MsWord.
A scroll down list appears.
Then click [Autoformat]
A dialogue box appears.
By default the radio button is selected for [Autoformat Now].
Just click the [OK] button.

All your text that displayed End Of Line markers on each line; will be changed to have only one End Of Line marker at the end of each paragraph.

@17 To register successfully, make sure to uninstall the previous version first. Then reinstal the Setup.exe as usual but uncheck mark the box of starting the program now. And then close it.
Now, click on the Activate.exe and let it work its way making sure to run it as an administrator if possible.
And once it is announced to be activated on the Giveaway webpage. Then close the webpage and start it. That should do the trick.

However, if you still have issues then check your Antivirus, antispyware programs. These can sometimes interfere with installation and activation of programs. Good luck.

--------------------
The positive points:
--------------------
You can drag and drop your pdf into the main window of the program itself making it very easy to use.
You can convert your pdf to Word and to Text (notepad). Make sure to check mark the box next to your selected pdf to start the conversion.
The speed of the conversion is average. It warns at the end of the conversion with a sound. Just click on the open button next to the output folder to check it and you can change the destination folder if desired.
Some converted texts were wrapped and were excellent as long as no picture of visual forms were included. It is easier to read these text documents than when you type yourself as the notepad from Windows is quite limited.

--------------------
The negative points:
--------------------
It does not work for pictures in pdf or not always.
I converted a knitting pattern to Word (the extension is rtf not doc). And the picture was striped with horizontal lines when I used Apache Open Office. And when I used Wordpad in Win 7 the picture disappeared altogether. And with Libre Office some text was missing.
Some text only pdf worked as Wordpad and text but not all of them.
Sometimes it does not convert in word document but as a notepad text file instead even if Word box was checked marked. It stopped responding and needed to be closed after adding a few pdf files to convert. So for using multiple files, it is not always easy. Perhaps the fonts used or the fact that some of my pdf used symbols in titles such as +- etc created this problem.

--------------
My conclusion, in spite of its good points, I was disappointed by this program as it was not doing a good job. Therefore I cannot recommend it. I would recommend to the manufacturers of this Simpo Pdf to Word software to tackle these problems. I use a lot of pdf converters but I fail to see lots of html to pdf converters which include the hyperlinks in their conversions. That would also be an idea for a different software...
--------------

Many thanks to Giovanni, ASCH and others, but it seems pdf-to-word remains out of reach of human technology. The common problem is the program's insertion of a hard return (¶) at the end of every line. Still not solved.
Maybe one day.
But I love GAOTD and its dedicated reviewers!!

@4 Karl, you seem to know quite well these types of programs do you of any freewares or open sources (also free) HTML to PDF converter?

I have registered this 4 times but still says will only convert 3 pages in this trial version. HELP

ASCH, not me! I applaud your post! Because, it sounds like this software giveaway, is either buggy or not working at all! So, I'll probably try one of these free softwares, that you graciously listed!

works like a charm. it says what i will do .
it will convert pdf to both formats of word and txt.
the only problem i found that some txt will overlap and some txt in the word format wont show on some parts after converting.

but found not problems with reg file.

it could nead a bit more work on the convert side.
as some parts do overlap and you cannot read it.

but thanks for the share gaotd.

Activation works on a Windows 8.1 64-bit and the tool is very helpfull. Thank you.

Whenever I try any of these pdf conversion programs, I am reminded of why I inevitably regret wasting my time vainly thinking that the technology has improved. It never does and, for anything I tried converting with this -- from a complex pdf with text and graphics to a simple text pdf-- the results were truly awful.

The best thing about this program is that it is quick and you don't have to wait too long to be disappointed in the results.

#fail Win 7 64bit. Won't activate (have run activate.exe and it says the sw is activated, but when you open the application it is not.) Have tried running as admin etc. UNINSTALLED.

#1 Sam.
Although it is an OCR program ABBYY FineReader will import PDF documents, it will convert Hebrew and many, many other languages. It is probably the best PDF converter available.
Older versions can sometimes be found at a reduced price if you search the Internet.

FIRST take a look at these:

convertonlinefree.com/PDFToWORDEN.aspx
www.pdftoword.org
www.freepdfconvert.com
www.convertmypdftoword.com
www.zamzar.com

now who dares to downvote my post?

Simpo has been around for some time, so no one-day fly. Their PDF conversion was OK but not top-notch. But perhaps they have improved. Note that the program does not convert scanned PDFs. The fact that, due to the generation proces, there are vastly different PDFs is a major cause for the often Babylonian misunderstanding in the commentaries

Produce pure quality outputs, and crash often when docs contains international chars.

ex.
with this it crash -> http://www.electrolux-ui.com//DocumentDownLoad.aspx?DocURL=2004\li1\6ADDA.pdf
& here picture & text arrangement goes really bad
http://www.electrolux-ui.com//DocumentDownLoad.aspx?DocURL=2008\219\302512DA.pdf

RTF files are not WORD format, it it Rich Text Format

But yes it was fast, just not delivering a quality I can/will use.

Cannot handle TABLES properly....so it's good but not great for me!

Better FREE alternative:

http://www.nemopdf.com/pdf-to-word.html

Enjoy!! ^_^

Doesn't work with older versions of Word.

Cannot handle subscript and superscript.

Installed and registered without problems to a Win 8.1.2 Pro 64 bit system.

A Chinese company without name&address : TODO and some chinese characters...

A small, very simple and non resizable window opens. You add your PDF file and choose the output Word or TXT. If WinWord is not installed the output will be RTF. In the settings you can change the language and define replace or rename of the output, if the file exists.

The interface is sufficient for the aim of this program. And a surprise from my side. The conversion is good, better than expected. It does not use the old (nonworking) PDFtoHTML module, but a rather new exportword.dll from November 2013, the exporttxt.dll is from mid 2012.

I have made two examples to show the conversion quality.

A simple PDF:

Original http://www1.xup.to/exec/ximg.php?fid=20806419

Converted http://www1.xup.to/exec/ximg.php?fid=91149404

A structured PDF with images

Original http://www1.xup.to/exec/ximg.php?fid=87234373

Converted http://www1.xup.to/exec/ximg.php?fid=15882315

Better than expected - you can use this small tools on not to complicated PDF.It did crash on a more complex PDF during my test. There is a log file, that's good, but my crash was not logged, that's bad:

2014-10-19 09:20:21 Convert file D:\Monatsbrief-September-2014.pdf
2014-10-19 09:20:21 Open file successful.
2014-10-19 09:20:21 Start parse PDF file. LOG file ends here!

Use it, if you don't have a working PDF to Word conversion tool.

Uninstalled via reboot. I'll keep my existing software.

Have a nice Sunday.

WOW... and last night, I had a PDF document to convert and here you are providing me with one. You answered my prayers... :)

God? Is that you? Thanks. :)

I have registered this version 3.5.2 three (3) times using the "activate" program. Each time I "activate" the program a message pops up stating that the program is now registered. However, when I open the program a box appears telling me that my trial version allows only 3 pages of conversion and asks for a serial number to register the program.

I am using Windows XP PRO w/SP3. Please advise how to activate or register the program.

Does this program convert Hebrew PDF as well? If not, would anyone know of one that does?