Whether you’re working on a school project or simply need to convert your scanned pdf files into Word, you’ve probably already come across the error message “This file type is not supported”. There are many solutions that claim to convert your scanned PDF files, but can cause unforeseen issues if you do not do so properly.
The ability to take digital copies of your written documents is something that has revolutionized the digital age. Nowadays, even though we’re all using computers and tablets as our main forms of communication, it’s still quite common for us to receive handwritten documents in the post. But how do you convert these hand-written documents into electronic format? We’ll show you how by inserting a scanned PDF document into Word in three easy steps.
When converting a scanned document to word, you need to decide whether you want each page in a new document (a different document for each page), or the entire scanned document in one word file. There are some factors that will help you make this decision, and we’ll look at those below. If you still can’t decide which is the best method for how to insert a scanned pdf document into word, then take a peek at our guide showing how to add pdf pages into word documents.
Many times you need to insert a scanned PDF document into Word. This is a common problem whether you are converting an image to a Word file or adding a photo to a brochure. You probably have images of receipts, letters and other items that you want to convert into Word documents. The problem is that you do not have suitable software to help you do so. Inserting a scanned PDF into Word is probably the easiest task you will face. We use PDFs all the time at work, but need to print them out later. With just a few clicks that’s no problem. This guide shows how easy it is
Insert scanned text or images into Word
Word for Microsoft 365 Word 2021 Word 2019 Word 2016 Word 2013
Write like a pro
Take your writing from good to great with Microsoft Editor.
If you’ve got a printed document or picture that you want to insert into your Word document, there are a couple of ways you can do that.
Note: If you’re looking for instructions on how to connect your scanner or copier to Microsoft Windows, please visit the manufacturer’s support website for your device.
Scan an image into Word
To scan an image into a Word document, you can use a scanner, a multi-function printer, a copier with scan capability, or a digital camera.
- Scan your image or take a photograph of it with your digital camera or smartphone.
- Save the image as a standard image format such as .JPG, .PNG or .GIF. Place it in a folder you can access on your computer.
- In Word, place your cursor where you would like to insert the scanned image and on the Insert tab of the Ribbon, click Pictures.
- Select your scanned picture from the dialog box, and click Insert.
Scan text into Word
The best way to scan a document into Microsoft Word is to use our free Office Lens app on your smartphone or tablet. It uses your device’s camera to capture the document and can save directly into Word format as an editable document. It’s available for free on iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone and Android.
If you don’t want to use Office Lens, the next best option is to scan your document as a PDF using your scanner’s native software and then open that PDF file in Word.
- In Word click File > Open.
- Navigate to where your PDF file is stored, and open it.
- Word will open a dialog box confirming that it is going to attempt to import the text of the PDF file. Click OK to confirm, and Word will import the text. Word will do its best to preserve the formatting of the text as it appears in the PDF.
How to Copy a Scanned Document to Microsoft Word
If you have a physical copy of a document but want to edit it to either share online or print out again, the process can seem complicated. Since scanned documents are usually saved as images or PDFs, turning them into editable Microsoft Word files isn’t entirely straightforward. However, you can do it in a few different ways. While you may not be able to use an image-to-Word converter online, several tools can read the text from a PDF and put it in Microsoft Word’s format. Word itself has a useful feature for this on newer versions.
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.
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.
Using Google Docs
Google Docs has a built-in OCR system, which you can use to convert your PDFs to text before copying them over to Microsoft Word. First, open Google Docs and click the cog icon to bring up the settings menu. Hover your mouse over “Upload settings” and make sure “Convert text from uploaded PDF and image files” is checked. Once this option is selected, all you have to do is upload a PDF to Google Docs, and it automatically recognizes the text and makes it editable.
To save as a Word document, press “Ctrl” and “A” to highlight all the text and then press “Ctrl” and “C” to copy it. Paste the text into a Word document and save it as you ordinarily would.
Importing the PDF as an Image
If nothing else works, you can still get your scanned document into Word as an image, as described by Microsoft. Scan the document or take a picture of it with your smartphone and save it on your computer in an easy-to-find location. Go to the “Insert” tab on Word and choose “Pictures” from the “Illustrations” group. Navigate to your image in the window that pops up, highlight it and click “Insert.” Then, position and resize the image as needed.
Insert PDF into Word with Adobe Acrobat
For users who have subscribed Adobe Acrobat, there’s no need to find another tool to do this job. Similar as Cisdem PDF Converter OCR, the conversion feature of Adobe Acrobat also enables users to convert both native and scanned PDFs, even images into editable Word format.
Steps to Insert PDF into Word with Adobe
- Open the PDF with Adobe Acrobat DC.
- Go to Tools>Export PDF. Choose the output as Word.
- Click “Export”, the PDF will be exported as Word format.
- Open the Word file in Microsoft Word, the PDF will be inserted into Word. No matter the PDF file is single page or multiple page.
For earlier Adobe versions, you can go to File>Save as Other>Word, then insert the PDF into Word document.
Best Tool to Insert PDF into Word on Windows
PDFMate PDF Converter Professional for Windows is a versatile PDF conversion software to convert native and scanned PDFs into Word/Text/ePub/Image/HTML, also allows users to merge and crop PDFs.
Steps to Insert PDF into Word on Windows
- Run and import PDF files into the program by clicking “Add PDF”.
- Go to the Output File Format as following, choose “DOC”.
- Click “Convert” to make the PDF in Word format on Windows.
- Open the Word file, the file originally saved in PDF is inserted into the Word document successfully.
How to Insert a PDF File into a Word Document
Several different methods to choose from
Since 1983 when it was first developed, Microsoft Word has evolved significantly. Not just in the number of versions but also in how much you can do with it. Granted, there are several free word processors that are great alternatives to Word, but it still remains the most popular of them all.
Word offers many features that help you present a wide range of different documents, and some can be confusing if you’re unfamiliar with them. One of these is the Insert PDF to Word tool, which enables you to insert a PDF file into a Word document in its entirety, or by attaching it as a clickable object.
Insert PDF To Word Methods
- Use Insert Object tool.
- Insert PDF as a static image.
- Use a PDF converter to insert PDF to Word as an image.
- Insert text from a PDF file to Word.
- Insert PDF to Word as a Linked Object.
- Copy the PDF file into Word.
- Use the full version of Adobe.
- Insert PDF to Word using a Mac.
- Use Google Docs.
Use Insert Object Tool
You can insert your PDF file into a Word document by embedding it as an object. This way, the first page of the PDF appears in the document and becomes part of it once inserted.
If you make any changes to the PDF document, they won’t reflect on the Word document because the PDF is not connected to the source file anymore. You can reposition, resize, recolor or attach a border, and control text wrapping around the object though.
- Open Word and place the cursor where you want the PDF inserted as an object.
- Click the Insert tab on the menu bar.
- In the Text group, click on Object.
- In the Object dialog box, click the Create from File tab
- Click Browse to locate the PDF file you want to insert.
- Click OK to embed the PDF into the Word document. You’ll see the PDF appear on the selected page.
Note: You cannot embed a password-protected PDF file into Word. If you try, Word will notify you that the file is protected, and you have to remove the password protection before embedding the file.
Benefits of Converting PDF to Word for Inserting
- The PDF becomes editable: After converting PDF to Word, the PDF file will becomes editable texts with good formatting and displays well in the Word file, you can easily edit and modify the PDF contents without paying for a highly-priced PDF editor;
- Multipage-PDF can be easily inserted: Without converting, you can only insert single-page PDF as image into Word file one by one, it is not editable, copyable and searchable;
- Word file can be exported as PDF effortlessly: After editing, you can easily save the Word file back as PDF within MS Word
Conclusion
Converting a Scanned PDF to Word is something non-technical people always come across. They have documents that they use day in and day out which are created in a scanned format. It is very easy to scan your docs and then access them through most word processors, but later converting those scanned documents into something that you can edit with Microsoft Word is a different thing altogether.
Did you know that you can convert a scanned PDF document and insert it into Microsoft Word? This is great news if you need to add a scanned copy of a handwritten document or an interesting drawing into a document. Convert scanned documents, drawings and photos to editable text in Microsoft Word with these helpful tips and features.