pdf into Word doc (2000, on Win XP)

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How can I insert a (multi-page) pdf file into a Word document? I don’t have the Adobe pdf generating software – only Acrobat reader and MS Word. Thanks!

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You can use Insert | Object… then click Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document, then click OK. You’ll be prompted to select the .pdf file.
However, you’ll only see the first page of the .pdf file in the Word document. You’ll have to double-click the Acrobat object to see the rest – this will start Adobe Reader.

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What exactly do you want — the image of the pages or the actual text they contain?

For the image, you can use the graphical selection tool in Adobe Reader to copy each page to the clipboard and then paste it into Word (you’ll need to change the margins in Word to accommodate at least a small amount of the margin from Reader). Note that for maximum resolution, you can view the document in Adobe Reader at 200% or 300% before copying and pasting. It might take a little practice to scroll the page window with the mouse button down to just the right spot to release it and get your copy.

For the text, there are a number of tools. Of course, if you don’t care about formatting, there’s always “save as text” from inside Reader.

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(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable – see Help 19)

If formatting is important to you, there’s a $20 app at http://www.pdf-file.com[/url%5D that claims to turn PDFs into properly formatted Word docs. I don’t think it gets any cheaper than that… Haven’t tried it myself, yet, but I’d be interested if anyone has feedback on it.

— Dan Goldstein

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I just installed the trial version, which can only convert page 1 of the Acrobat file, it is most impressive – even prompted me for the password for a protected Acrobat file that I tried it on. Very good layout that includes all the images and text.

I think I’m going to be spending $20 on this one.

Why not put a post describing this tool in our Software Finds and Wants forum?

StuartR

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I only reply, because I had the same problem now and found a solution: use FinePrint http://www.fineprint.com/ “]http:// http://www.fineprint.com/ [/url] (it is not free, unfortunately). It allows you also to print to an image (tif, jpg, emf), one for each page, which you then insert into your Word document.

Regards, Teunis

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If image quality isn’t a live or die issue and you can live with the pages as inserted graphics rather than editable text, you can paste each page of the *.pdf into the Word document as a separate snapshot.

First open the *.pdf. Make the screen image as large as you can while still fitting the whole page on your screen in one visible gulp. Click on the camera tool. Use the cursor to box the area you wish to “photograph.” The resulting image will be placed in your clipboard. Now go to your Word file, and paste the image as a graphic. Not pretty, not perfect, but very often good enough.

ksalazar, proposal drone

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