The short answer
PDF to Word rebuilds paragraphs, headings, lists, tables and images as real Word content — not text boxes pinned to a page. Single-column documents convert cleanly; scans need OCR first, because there is no text in them to move.
Step by step
- Check the PDF has real text Try selecting a word. If the whole page highlights instead, it is a scan and there is nothing to convert yet.
- Drop it into PDF to Word Keep tables and pictures on unless you want plain text. Leave page breaks off if you intend to edit — the text flows better that way.
- Open the .docx and check the structure first Look at the navigation pane: headings should be there. Then check tables, which are where layout guesses show up.
- Fix the few things that moved Multi-column layouts and headers are the usual casualties. Fixing a page or two is normally faster than retyping the document.
- Go back to PDF when you are done Word to PDF keeps headings, lists, tables, links and bookmarks, so the round trip ends where it started.
Questions
Will it look exactly like the PDF?
Close, not identical. A PDF is a fixed page and Word is flowing text; keeping both perfectly means locking every line into a box, which is unusable for editing.
Can I convert a scanned PDF?
Not usefully yet. It needs OCR to add a text layer first — that tool is in the next wave here.
Is there a watermark or a page limit?
Neither. The conversion happens in your browser, so there is nothing to meter.
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