Best PDF to Word conversion program Thread poster: Andres Pacheco
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Hi there,
I would like to know what's the best program to convert PDF files to Word. Also, does Acrobat Pro have an export function or you have to do it manually?
TIA,
Andres
| | | | Shripal Shar (X)
India
Local time: 05:58
English to Hindi
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| Software application | Jul 21, 2009 |
Best PDF to Word conversion program is Acrobate 3D.
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I use OmniPage, one of the most expensive but also the best in my opinion. Nuance, the editor of OmniPage, has unfortunately been more than sloppy with customer service and support. This is a major disadvantage, so if you are not willing to invest time to learn to use the software, it may not be the right choice for you. But if you have spare time and are curious, it is really worth learning to use OmniPage.
OmniPage allows you to prepare a document for optical character recognition... See more I use OmniPage, one of the most expensive but also the best in my opinion. Nuance, the editor of OmniPage, has unfortunately been more than sloppy with customer service and support. This is a major disadvantage, so if you are not willing to invest time to learn to use the software, it may not be the right choice for you. But if you have spare time and are curious, it is really worth learning to use OmniPage.
OmniPage allows you to prepare a document for optical character recognition. It lets you correct brigtness, contrast, etc., to eliminate problems in documents that may make it hard to recognize the text. There is a despeckle function as well. It also allows you to visually select parts of a document to recognize and exclude other parts. You can even determine in which way you want each section recognized--as text, table or image.
I find that once you have learned to use it, it is user-friendly and fast. Now that I have managed to force Nuance to iron out the problems I had in the beginning, I am very satisfied with it.
OmniPage Professional usually costs USD 500, but I think about 80% of copies sold goes at USD 100--Nuance is a real nuisance when it comes to e-mail marketing and I get an e-mail from them at least twice a week. They are constantly offering OmniPage Professional 17 at USD 100 (about once a month). If you try the software and are interested in buying it, let me know. Maybe I can arrange to buy it for you at the cheap price.
http://www.nuance.com/imaging/omnipage/omnipage-professional.asp
I have been using OmniPage Professional 15 and it seems to me that there is nothing new really in more recent versions. So, if you find a used copy of 15, 16 or 17, you can be sure that my description fits those versions. There are some great deals on ebay, for instance.
[Edited at 2009-07-21 17:55 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daiana Siri
Argentina
Local time: 21:28
English to Spanish
I usually use Nitro PDF it is not expensive and it can convert PDF files into Word keeping the original format of the text.
You can also edit PDF files and add comments, replace pages, etc.
This is their Website
http://nitro-pdf.uptodown.com/
You can download the trial mode, the program costs $99, after the trial period ends, you can still use the program.
The o... See more I usually use Nitro PDF it is not expensive and it can convert PDF files into Word keeping the original format of the text.
You can also edit PDF files and add comments, replace pages, etc.
This is their Website
http://nitro-pdf.uptodown.com/
You can download the trial mode, the program costs $99, after the trial period ends, you can still use the program.
The only inconvenience is that it will save your PDF files with a small watermark, but it will still let you convert files into Word.
Daiana ▲ Collapse
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Olieslagers
French Polynesia
Local time: 14:28
Dutch to French
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| ABBYY PDF transformer | Jul 21, 2009 |
I've been working with ABBYY PDF transformer 2.0 for quite a while, it's easy to use and it's a good value for money. There's a trial version you can download on: http://pdftransformer.abbyy.com/
Noëlle
| | | | | Abby Fine reader | Jul 21, 2009 |
The basic use is extremely easy - just right click on the file and choose option Abby Fine reader>convert to Word. This program is good at handling multilingual files - big advantage for translators
Best Regards
S
| | | | | Another vote for Omnipage | Jul 21, 2009 |
Many options to play with, and most of them worth trying. Batch processing. Multilingual support. I'm at version 14 and happy enough with it not to upgrade. Flawless when pdf is created from an electronic file but excellent even with scanned docs. I remember using it to OCR 700 pages, and then creating a TM from it through WinAlign - pretty tedious but quite fast, all things considered.
| | | | MikeTrans
Germany
Local time: 02:28
Italian to German
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| Yes, definitly Omnipage | Jul 21, 2009 |
Hi,
I'm getting very good results with Scansoft Omnipage, version 15. If you often work with TRUE PDF documents or with any sort of scanned documents (which is not the same!) then: take the necessary time to get familiar with this fine program.
You may choose a lot of time saving options as excluding grafics, simple text convertion within the MS WORD interface (Softscan PDF conversion allowing you to open directly any PDF within WORD), huge options about representing grafics i... See more Hi,
I'm getting very good results with Scansoft Omnipage, version 15. If you often work with TRUE PDF documents or with any sort of scanned documents (which is not the same!) then: take the necessary time to get familiar with this fine program.
You may choose a lot of time saving options as excluding grafics, simple text convertion within the MS WORD interface (Softscan PDF conversion allowing you to open directly any PDF within WORD), huge options about representing grafics in table format, pure text format, true page format etc.
Nothing left to any random results like in many other conversion tools.
However, it's not cheap (2003).
Advice: Absolutely stay away from version 11 !
Hope this will help,
Mike
[Edited at 2009-07-21 23:35 GMT]
[Edited at 2009-07-21 23:39 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Lectorcito 
United States
Local time: 17:28
English to Spanish
| What kind of PDF? | Jul 22, 2009 |
Andres Pacheco wrote:
Hi there,
I would like to know what's the best program to convert PDF files to Word. Also, does Acrobat Pro have an export function or you have to do it manually?
Are you asking about PDFs created from a scanned document (PDFs that are an image, that is) or PDFs created with a text processor or a similar program (PDFs where you can select and search text)?
| | | | | Abbyy Fine Reader | Jul 22, 2009 |
I discovered that with this OCR even the conversion PDF-WORD is fantastic!
ilaria
| | | | Andres Pacheco
Local time: 21:28
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks, everyone! | Jul 22, 2009 |
Thank you everyone for your answers.
Lectorcito, I mean general conversion tools. I believe that I work mostly with PDFs where you can search and select text, though.
I am using Abby's trial edition and it is working OK. But I'll take into consideration your other suggestions for further experimentation!
Best regards,
Andres
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John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 20:28
Member (2008)
French to English
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| Free PDF Editor - ABBYY Finereader | Jul 24, 2009 |
Thank you, Vladislav, for the timely notification. That program seems to be a good editor.
I can vouch for ABBYY Finereader, which I have been using for some time. You have to get to know its layout recognition features, but it does a very good job of converting scanned images to formatted Word documents. Tables can be built as tables, text as text, and images, such as logos and signatures, can be kept as images, if you take the time to go over the document manually and tell the ... See more Thank you, Vladislav, for the timely notification. That program seems to be a good editor.
I can vouch for ABBYY Finereader, which I have been using for some time. You have to get to know its layout recognition features, but it does a very good job of converting scanned images to formatted Word documents. Tables can be built as tables, text as text, and images, such as logos and signatures, can be kept as images, if you take the time to go over the document manually and tell the program how to handle each field. ▲ Collapse
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One more vote for Abbyy FineReader.
| | | | Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 18:28
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
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But, does Omnipage convert an image PDF into an editable file?
(I'm talking about those images containing text)
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