Skip to main content
VellumPDF

PDF to Word

Your PDF’s content, ready to rework in Word or LibreOffice.

Your files never leave your device

Drop your PDF here

or click to browse your files

How to convert a PDF to Word, step by step

VellumPDF infers a Word document structure from the PDF’s text — it is not a copy of the layout, and the tool says so plainly before converting.

  1. Drop in the PDF

    The page count appears right away; a password-protected file is refused.

  2. Choose a page range, if needed

    A field accepts a free range (for example 1-3, 5, 8-10); left empty, the whole document is converted.

  3. Read the warning shown

    VellumPDF rebuilds headings, paragraphs, bold and italic from the font sizes it detects: columns, tables, images and exact positioning are not reproduced.

  4. Click “Convert to Word”

    If no text could be extracted — a scanned PDF — conversion stops and a link leads straight to the OCR tool.

  5. Download the .docx file

    It opens in Word, LibreOffice or Pages, with a page break between each original page.

On a scanned document, run OCR first and then start the conversion again: with no text to extract, VellumPDF has nothing to rebuild.

Frequently asked questions

Does the PDF converted to Word keep exactly the same layout?

No, this is an export of the content, not a faithful copy of the layout: columns, tables, images and exact positioning are not reproduced. VellumPDF instead takes the text and infers a structure from it — heading levels, paragraphs, bold and italic — with a page break between each PDF page.

Does the resulting file open in Word, or do I need specific software?

The file produced is a standard .docx, directly editable in Microsoft Word, LibreOffice or Pages. No extra software is required.

Does VellumPDF also offer the reverse conversion, from Word to PDF?

Yes, with a separate tool: Office to PDF converts .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files to PDF, again inside your browser. This tool only works in the PDF-to-Word direction.

What happens if I convert a scanned PDF with no selectable text?

The conversion stops with a message explaining that no text could be extracted, likely because the document is made of images. A link leads straight to the text recognition (OCR) tool — once the PDF has been made searchable, you can come back here and run the conversion again.

Can I convert only certain pages instead of the whole document?

Yes, a page range field lets you enter something like 1-3, 5, 8-10; left empty, it converts the whole document. Progress shows the current page during extraction, before the Word file is composed.

How does VellumPDF decide that a line becomes a heading rather than a plain paragraph?

Font size is compared against the most common size in the document’s body text: a line that is noticeably larger, matching one of three detected tiers, becomes a heading at the corresponding level. Consecutive lines of the same size that sit close together are merged back into a single paragraph, so a sentence wrapping across several lines isn’t fragmented.