PDF to word on Mac?

[kaeding]

Ok, long story in short,
recently I have some PDF files need to transfer to word for use in my office 2008. I firstly tried to copy and paste but the contents are messed up using Adobe Reader. I could not upload it to Zamzar.com or other online websites because they are my company’s confidential files. As I use Mac OS and there is little desktop software I can refer to. So any idea helpfully would be appreciated.

[Turboladdade]

Well that is definitely a tough one. PDF is intended as a distribution format, not a working format. It's very tough to get it back to a working format once it's already been made a PDF.

Firstly, don't use Adobe Reader on your Mac, like, at all. Adobe Reader for Mac is an unbelievably awful piece of software. Open your PDF using Apple Preview, which is in your Applications folder. Then, hit Command + A to select everything, then Command + V to paste. But, try pasting into Apple Pages, you may have better luck than with Word. If you don't have Pages you can download the iWork '09 demo from Apple's website, and I highly recommend buying it too at $79 it's a steal and my preferred office suite.

The chances of you getting your content out of a PDF and looking exactly like it does in the PDF are pretty narrow, unfortunately.

[cgvarela]

There are many tools free or pay apps than can use, the most I know are for Windows, for example:
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Busi ... erter.html
Basically its convert to RTF format that word can open too.
Hope help you!
regards,

Varela
Madrid, Spain.

[cgvarela]

Just search for pdf2word on google for example.

[Turboladdade]

A Windows application probably wouldn't be very helpful in this situation. If I were to try to go that route, I would search VersionTracker's Mac OS X portal for PDF converters:

http://www.versiontracker.com/php/qs.ph ... &submit=Go

But I still say the first thing to try is copy from Apple Preview and paste into Word 2008 or Pages '09. Copying from Apple Preview will probably have the same quality result as dedicated translator software, if not better (I think the latter honestly).

[DavidSmith]

Yes, there are many windows applications but they would be helpless since you use MAC OS. And I have take Preview for a trial but it also can not resolve that problem, because it also just a reader like Adobe. However, you can still get some approachs. And here is my advice:
(1)use Adobe Acrobat. It can run on MAC OS and you can save PDF as your word 2008 for specific use. The cons is that it is too expensive and I am not sure the free trial would help you.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/
(2)use Open Office. Open Office can help you save PDF as word. It is open resource. As you use Office 2008. I am not sure all the formats and elements would be preserved well. You need to check it out yourself.
http://download.openoffice.org/
(3)Use AnyBizSoft PDF to Word for Mac, which is an application designed for Mac users. I think it could definitely meet your needs. It is not free but very cheap compared with Acrobat. I have tried it and feel well as I am also a Mac user.
http://www.anypdftools.com/pdf-to-word-for-mac.html#201
Hope my suggestion would help you.

[sxbaan]

The best solution really is to try and find the original documents, if possible. There is simply no perfect way to convert from PDF back to Microsoft Word format.

If anything, you might even be better off simply recreating the documents from scratch.

[trumpnet]

I use Adobe Reader 9. Select "single page continuous" in View at the top. Go to Edit, "select all" and "copy". Open Word, select new blank document and "paste". It works for me.