Word, LibreOffice, Google Docs or an online converter?

Last reviewed: 2026-10-25

You may not need a converter at all. Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs can each open a PDF for editing. Here is what each one is documented to do well and badly, so you can pick the right one for your file.

Microsoft Word (File → Open)

Word can open a PDF directly: choose File → Open, pick the PDF and accept the prompt that Word will convert it. Microsoft’s own guidance says:

• “This works best with PDFs that are mostly text.”
• “PDFs of book chapters or something that looks like a manuscript from a copier won’t be formatted well in Word.”
• Word works on a copy: “The original PDF won’t be changed at all.”
• “The converted document might not have a perfect page-to-page correspondence with the original.”

Good for: text documents when you already have Word, and documents you would rather not upload anywhere. Not for: scans.

LibreOffice (free)

Opening a PDF in LibreOffice opens it in Draw, its drawing program, by default: each piece of text becomes a separate positioned object. That is fine for correcting a typo and saving back to PDF, but it is not a flowing document you can rewrite. LibreOffice developers themselves describe the import as a conversion of the content, not editing of the original PDF.

We know this behaviour well, because LibreOffice is our converter’s fallback engine: we force its Writer import, and the result is text in positioned frames. That is why we only use it when the main engine fails.

Good for: small corrections, offline, free. Not for: rewriting long passages or reflowing text.

Google Docs (free, Google account)

In Google Drive, right-click a PDF and choose Open with → Google Docs. Google runs OCR on it. Its help page says:

• Files should be 2 MB or smaller.
• “Bold, italics, font size, font type, and line breaks are likely to be retained.”
• “Lists, tables, columns, footnotes, and endnotes are not likely to be detected.”
• Pages must be right-side up, and text should be at least 10 pixels tall.

Google detects the language automatically and supports many languages, which makes it a good option for scans in a script our converter does not read.

Good for: small scans, scans in other languages. Not for: files over 2 MB, or anything with tables.

An online converter (like this one)

A dedicated converter rebuilds tables and layout rather than just text. Ours uses pdf2docx for normal PDFs, OCR for scans, and LibreOffice only as a fallback, and returns a .docx you can open in Word, Pages, Google Docs or LibreOffice. In our tests ruled tables stayed real tables and text PDFs came through word for word.

The trade-off is that your file leaves your computer. Here it is processed on our server and deleted as soon as you download the result (details: what happens to your files).

Good for: tables, batches of up to 20 files, scans in English or Greek, phones and computers without Word. Not for: documents that must not leave your device.

Convert a PDF now → Free, no sign-up, files deleted as soon as you download the result

Quick comparison

Which should you use?

• Private document, mostly text, you have Word: use Word.
• A typo to fix and save back as PDF: LibreOffice Draw.
• A small scan in a language other than English or Greek: Google Docs.
• Tables, several files, a phone, or no Word licence: an online converter such as this one.

Frequently asked questions

Can Word convert a PDF to Word by itself?

Yes. Open the PDF with File, Open in Word and accept the conversion prompt. Microsoft says it works best with PDFs that are mostly text and not well with copier-style scans.

Does Google Docs keep tables when converting a PDF?

Google’s help page says lists, tables, columns, footnotes and endnotes are not likely to be detected, and files should be 2 MB or smaller.