Converting scanned PDF to editable Word is a very common process now. This is because PDFs are widely used in today’s business world. A lot of companies use a scanner to scan their documents and convert the file into a PDF. This is because PDFs can be used almost anywhere and it allows the person using it to print off that file for future use.
PDFs are a great way to share documents. They’re universal, they’re easy to save, they allow anyone to access the exact same copy of the document, and they can’t be easily manipulated or edited. That’s why businesses won’t give out Word documents straight up — PDFs are the safe bet that you’ll always have access to what they’re distributing. But converting a PDF to Word isn’t exactly easy. Using the united application convert pdf to editable word document, you convert your pdf into editable word document so that you can edit any part of it using Microsoft word.
This tutorial shows you how to convert scanned PDF file to a Word document for free online. It is free, so no payments required. This article demonstrates free online services that convert scanned PDF to Word document. You can select PDF and one of the editable file formats. These conversions are absolutely free, but you need adjust settings for conversion depending on your requirements.
For some business purposes, you may need to convert scanned PDF to editable Word (DOC or DOCX) file. Let’s say that you have some printed documents in the form of a PDF file and you want to make edits and format them online, without printing out the document first. If you need help with that, this tutorial will show you how to convert scanned PDF to Word document online, free, without installing any software.
Check out how you can convert scanned PDF documents to editable Word files using our OCR.
Converting your file from PDF to Word is easy. The process simply returns the contents of your PDF file to its original format.
However, if you are scanning documents and saving them to PDF, most times, they’re stored as images. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is required to extract the text and save the converted documents into editable Word files.
Our online tool offers both options. And yes, it’s free to use.
How to Convert Scanned PDF to Word Documents Online
- Go to the Smallpdf PDF to Word online tool.
- Upload your PDF file via drag-and-drop.
- Select the option you need—the OCR conversion is only available as a Pro feature.
- Wait for the conversion to finish.
- Download your editable Word file.
The process of converting the scanned PDF file into an editable Word doc may take a few extra seconds, as our OCR needs to recognize the text of the paper documents stored as scans in PDF form. On the bright side, being a fast online PDF to Word converter—loved by over 40 million monthly users, and counting, the whole process to convert the file from scanned PDF to Word shouldn’t take too long.
Is the Scanned Pdf to Word Converter Free?
All of Smallpdf’s tools are free to use with some limitations—our OCR Word converter is a Pro feature. You can scan to pdf online, as well as convert images, spreadsheets, and powerpoints to pdf, even when these documents are scans. To use our optical character recognition (OCR) technology to convert images to editable Word, check out our JPG to Word guide.
Cool, But What Are the Limitations?
Free tasks are limited to two per day and some features are only accessible with a Pro subscription. File size is also limited to a maximum of 5 GB, as high-resolution scans may be quite large.
Getting a Smallpdf Pro account will remove the daily task limit and allow you to use the tools as often as you need to convert images to pdf, or scanned pdf to word, or use our scan to pdf converter.
Are My Scans Safe?
Utmost security of your files is a guarantee. We’ve recognized the concern of general users when it comes to cloud services from day one. Smallpdf does everything in our power to take care of your files; we use TLS encryption, delete files after one hour, and use the reliable Amazon Web Services to host and handle your documents. For full disclosure, check out our Terms and Privacy page.
Convert Scanned PDF to Word
Use our powerful PDF to Word OCR converter tools to instantly turn your scanned PDFs into
perfectly formatted Word docs that are easy to update and edit.
Free Online PDF to Word OCR Converter
Evaluate Able2Extract PDF OCR technology 100% free.
No email required, completely anonymous.
How to convert scanned PDF to Word free online:
Step 1: Upload your scanned PDF file.
Step 2: Download the converted Word document.Drag & drop or click to upload a PDF file
Desktop PDF Converter & Editor with OCR
Get our Able2Extract Professional software and enjoy the best conversion results possible thanks to its next-generation OCR engine:
- Convert scanned PDFs to MS Office and more formats.
- Turn image-based PDFs into searchable PDFs.
- Extract scanned PDF tables into Excel sheets.
- Password protect PDFs; redact sensitive content.
- PDF OCR support for 12 different languages.Improved
- Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
What are the Main Differences Between the Two PDF to Word OCR Solutions?
No Download Needed
With our online PDF to Word OCR tool, you convert your scanned files online directly in your browser (an active internet connection is required).
No Internet Needed
Able2Extract PRO works completely offline. You can use it to convert your docs offline without having to upload files to external servers for conversion.❮❯
What does OCR mean?
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. This is advanced technology that enables you to transform hard copy documents and images into editable digital files, or to extract data locked inside scanned PDFs into easy-to-edit file formats like Microsoft Word and Excel.
What is OCR software?
Software equipped with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) offers users the ability to work with data from scanned documents that are saved as digital file formats, especially PDF.
Optical character recognition scans image-based files looking for text and tries to recognize individual characters. Once visual clues inside the document are matched with any character in the underlying character database, OCR produces machine-encoded text that users can edit in word processors.
For example, an OCR program can transform a picture of an invoice into an editable invoice. It can save you time on manually retyping textual content from a PDF or an image file.
One more benefit of using OCR software is related to making paper documentation digitally searchable. Once all your scanned documents have been OCRed, you can easily search for a specific document or even a keyword across the whole set of documents.
OCR technology is getting more accurate every year thanks to AI algorithms and increased processing power of hardware and software tools. That’s why it is important to have the latest version at hand for the best OCR results possible.One more thing to take into consideration is language support. Advanced solutions have the ability to extract special characters for multiple languages whether they are phonograms (e.g. Latin alphabet) or logograms (e.g. Chinese characters).
How to OCR a PDF?
If you want a free solution for turning scanned PDF content into digitally editable text, look no further than Investintech’s scanned PDF to Word OCR converter.
You can drag-and-drop a file into the conversion rectangle on this page to start the upload or simply click the rectangle to browse for a file on your computer you’d like to OCR. Once the upload is complete, the conversion will start automatically. Once finished, you will be able to download the Word file and start another conversion with no daily limits per user.
If you want to have more flexibility over your conversion and the range of output file formats available, try Able2Extract Professional that comes with a powerful OCR engine baked right in to provide you with a complete desktop PDF solution for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
You can choose to convert everything or just a portion of a document, extract special characters in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian languages. Make scanned PDFs searchable without conversion, and get the editable file into various file formats.
The best part – there’s no need to do anything manually! Able2Extract Pro recognizes a scanned (image-based) PDF when opened and performs OCR automatically. Just open a document and click on the file format of your choice, Able2Extract will do all the heavy lifting for you.
Online OCR Service
An alternative to using the features in Word is to use an online optical character recognition (OCR) service to convert the text in your PDF to a Word document, as discussed by Computer Hope. These services basically do the same thing as the native Word option, but they’re a good alternative if you have an older version of Word. Visit a site like OnlineOCR or SodaPDF; upload the PDF file on the main page and follow the instructions on the site to complete the conversion. For example, at OnlineOCR, you choose your file, select the language and output format, and press “Convert” to initiate the process.
Scan Document to Word via PDF
As Microsoft explains, you can open a scanned PDF in Word easily on versions after Word 2010. First, use your scanner and save the document as a PDF in a location you’ll be able to find easily. Open Word and go to “File” and “Open” before navigating to your PDF file. When you select the file, Word displays a pop-up informing you that it will attempt to import the PDF as an editable Word file. All you have to do is click “OK” to start the process.
This approach tends to work better when the document has a good resolution, so if you have trouble – and it’s possible you will – scan the document in higher quality and try it again. This method doesn’t work with handwritten text.
Alternatively, you can use the Office Lens app, which is available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, to scan the document directly into a Word document. This method is a more direct approach and is worth trying if you have trouble with the importation process on Word itself.
Scan and edit a document
Word for Microsoft 365 Word 2021 Word 2019 Word 2016 Word 2013 Word 2010
After you scan a document, you can open the document in Word to edit it. How you do this depends on the version of Office that you have installed.
Scan a document as a PDF file and edit it in Word
Tip: The conversion works best with documents that are mostly text.
- Scan your document according to the instructions for your scanner, and save it to your computer as a .pdf file.
- In Word, click File > Open.
- Browse to the location of the PDF file on your computer and click Open.
- A message appears, stating that Word will convert the PDF file into an editable Word document. Click OK.
The converted document might not have a perfect page-to-page correspondence with the original. For example, lines and pages may break at different locations.
How to convert scanned PDF to editable PDF?
To accomplish this task you will need a software application with built-in OCR technology.
Here’s how to convert scanned PDF to editable PDF with Able2Extract Professional, a desktop PDF converter with OCR:
- Open a scanned PDF in Able2Extract
- Convert the PDF to any editable file format (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
- Open the output file in its default application
- Select a Print option and choose the Able2Extract Professional printer
- Open the printed PDF in Able2Extract and start editing
Conclusion
Word Online is a free Microsoft Word program that allows users to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with clearly outlined formatting similar to what non-tech savvy people will find on their computer. Although Word Online is not exactly the same as the software available online or in stores where you can buy applications, it is popular among students and businesses.
Fully-functioned free PDF converts to editable Word documents software is necessary for you if you scan a lot of documents, but can’t open them afterwards as you don’t have Microsoft Word. So in general, it’s important to know how to convert scanned PDF to Word format.