Need to Copy PDF to Word? Here are 3 Most Practical Ways

We all know that PDF, as one of the most popular document formats, provides a way better readability than Word. But since it's a different format, usually you cannot integrate PDF content with a Word document.

That's what you'd presume. Right?

Well, in fact, there are some ways in which you can copy PDF content and paste it into a Word document with ease. If that's what you've been trying to do, keep reading and I'm sure this article will help.

But first, let's have a look why you can't copy PDF into Word.

Part 1: Why Can't You Copy Content From a PDF File?

Most of the content of a PDF file can be copied into a word document, however, in some cases, the contents could not be copied, and you need to convert PDF to Word first in order to copy what’s in it. The reason why you cannot copy the PDF file could be following:

1 The Reader Tool Does Not Support Copying

A lot of programs or tools can open PDF files, but not all of them allow you to copy what’s in it. If you are using a PDF reader tool that does not support copying, you need to convert PDF to Word first before you can copy any content in it.

2 The PDF File is Made of Scanned Pages

If there is an issue in which your Adobe Reader cannot copy and paste from a PDF file, there is a great possibility that the PDF file was made from scanned pages of books and do not have any real text within it.

3 The PDF File Could be Secured, Protected or Encrypted

If there is an issue in which your Adobe Reader cannot copy and paste from a PDF file, there is a great possibility that the PDF file was made from scanned pages of books and do not have any real text within it. Also, an encrypted PDF file has some security settings, for example, passwords that does not allow people who have the document to copy from the PDF file or make any changes to the content of the file.

Part 2: How to Copy PDF into Word with Adobe Acrobat Pro

Copying the text from the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro and pasting it into a document is a straightforward way to insert a bit of text into Word. It is also important to note that pasting from a PDF sometimes imports artifacts including embedded line breaks. Especially for longer pastes, you'll probably have to tweak the resulting text to ensure it is typographically accurate.

Step 1: Open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat.

Step 2: Right-click the document in the primary window and choose “Select Tool” from the menu that appears.

Step 3: Drag to select the text you want to copy.

Step 4: Right-click the selection, then select Copy with Formatting.

Step 5: Open the Word document. Place the cursor in the Word document where you want to paste the text from the PDF file then paste the copied text from the PDF file into the Word document.

Part 3: Copy PDF into Word by Converting PDF

As mentioned above, not everybody have Adobe Acrobat Pro. When you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Pro, using MintPDF to copy PDF to Word might be one of the best ideas. MintPDF allows you to convert a PDF to an editable Word file with ease. After the conversion, you can then freely copy anything in the file without any extra steps.

MintPDF is a program that enables the conversion of PDF files to Word, Excel, PPT, Image, Text, or HTML in batch at a very high speed. The program coverts PDF files within seconds and it produces a great output quality.

1,000,000+ Downloads

Key Features:

• Copy PDF to Word with original formatting.
• Select any part of the document to copy.
• Supports Word(docx, doc), Excel(xlsx, xls), images(jpg, png, bmp, gif, tif), PPT(pptx, ppt), txt and html
• High converting speed and solid output quality.
• Get 1-day free license by sharing MintPDF on social media.

Here is how to use MintPDF to convert PDF to Word in order to copy it.

Step 1: Download, install, and launch iMyFone MintPDF on your computer. Then choose the file type under the "Convert PDF" bar. In this case, choose the “To Word” option.

Step 2: Click "Add Files" or "Click to add or drag files here" tab and select the PDF file(s). Alternatively, you can simply drag your file(s) to the central panel. Next, specify the format and customize the save path for the output file(s) on the bottom panel.

Step 3: Freely check the file(s) you want to convert and click the "Convert" button to start. Whether or not the PDF file is encrypted, MintPDF will convert it automatically. However, you may have to enter the password for encrypted PDF(s).

Step 4: Finally, wait for it to finish and you can now get the output file(s) in your desired format.

Part 4: Copy PDF into Word in Microsoft Word

This approach only inserts the text from a PDF directly into the Word document, and you can directly do it in Microsoft Word.

Note that Word converts the PDF into an editable text document. The result might not look the same as the original PDF, especially if the file includes graphics or text formatting. But if you don’t care too much about the formatting, this indeed is a simple way to copy an entire PDF file to a Word file. Here is how you can do that.

Step 1: Place the cursor in the Word document where you want to insert the text from a PDF file. Then select the Insert tab.

Step 2: Select the drop-down arrow next to Object in the Text group, then select Text from File

Step 3: Open the PDF file and select Insert, then click "OK" to confirm the conversion. Make sure the "PDF File" is selected.

Step 4: Click “OK” if you get an alert that the conversion process might take a long time. After Word converts the PDF to text, a copy of the original PDF file will appear in the document.