Not having much luck finding a free pdf to word converter for Mac. This one will be good since I have both platforms but sure could use a good one for Mac. Any ideas?

Prepressology

I'm with MuZee. Is this just ANOTHER virtual printer driver?

chris-mcc

Don't you need admin rights to install anything, or at least given permission by someone who does have admin rights? I'm not sure because I've had those rights ever since I cared.

About this program though, it's something I'll have to give a serious look to. I don't care if it misses some formatting stuff (although always getting it right would be great). If I need something converted I'll gladly take the time to fix formatting over the time to retype the whole thing.

Although, if you have Foxit Reader you can copy and paste text. Not sure if I could do that with Adobe because I didn't feel like waiting 10 years for the thing to load so I could find out.

waffles

... why do I need Admin rights to install this program? What's so complex about it?.. is it a "virtual printer driver"? Maybe i'm missing something.

muzee

@mb: The last item on the FAQ page refers to getting a free registration code from hellopdf.com, the S/W creator. A WHOIS search shows the domain is registered to a Zhou Lin in China. I assume that is what Jarmod was referring to.

cronimi

@mb: Maybe I misinterpret the FAQ statement but I infer from the comments about firewalls that the software will not properly function if it is unable to authorize the registration code. And to do that it contacts hellopdf.com which, I believe, is hosted in China and maybe owned by a technology university.

jarmod

Aidan: Try any free PDF printer that's out there. My personal favourite is PDFCreator - for freeware, the PDF files it produces has some of the smallest footprints I've seen (to come out of freeware).

As for locked PDFs... can't you print it as an unlocked PDF using another virtual PDF printer, then convert it?

kureshii

Does it become editable with that conversion to word? I'm assuming it does, because it wouldn't be much help if it didn't.

tybraun

@mb: Thanks for the tip. However, I would like a converter that can convert images too. I will try MS Journal Writer.

pri101

Is there any freeware that can turn a web page into a PDF? I mean a whole history of the page, like a diary that dates back eight years. I remember Acrobat would do it, Acrobat would also do a lot of other things that sucked. Any help?

aidan_cage

@pri101: I've actually been able to send the locked PDF to the Microsoft Journal Note writer. This creates TIFF images of the PDF pages. It's been a while since I've done it though, so I can't recall the exact steps I followed.

If you don't need Word format and you're comfortable programming, there's a Python Cookbook recipe called Pure Python PDF to text converter that will create a plain text version of a PDF's contents.

mb

@jarmod: Where do you see that on the FAQ page?

mb

Does this allow me to print PDF's locked from printing? If not, anyone have a solution?

pri101

Can't say that I'm a big fan of free software that requires you to "authorize your free registration code" and then dials home to a website hosted in China, if the FAQ is to be believed.

jarmod

@muzee: @chris-mcc: It turns out it isn't. It does do a very nice job though, I put a pdf into it and it spit out a .doc looking just the same. Nice!

photoben

hello,
www.zamzar.com is a pretty good web solution. no need to install anything.

qrius

I did not need to register, it worked just fine.

kaushalmodi

Fast, easy installation and smooth conversion.

rob32

I agree that sites like Zamzar.com or Media-Convert.com work pretty well, but it is nice to have a small utility to do it without an Internet connection. I just tried this app out and it did a pretty good job, although I think it works best if you choose not to retain shapes and images or use text boxes.

forpeterssake

My first 2 tries, it gave me a runtime error (abnormal program termination) at 52%. So I unchecked the options boxes, and it converted to a blank page. My fault - I was trying to convert scanned images of a page (no character recognition). The fourth was a charm: tabs, bullets, graphics, and all.

Not a tenth as powerful as Solid Converter, but for free, it's the best thing to come along yet. New cool tool to pass on to my fellow tech writers.

Jordaan

@jarmod: You don't actually have to register to use the app. I installed it, converted a PDF document, and closed it without getting a single nag to register.

lizzybee

Zamzar is horrid. nothing compares in my testing to deskUNPDF Pro from Docudesk.com maintains the look of the PDF better than the 5 or so I've tested. Zamzar is among the worst. Even though docudesk only allows a one page test before paying, its easy to compare. Try zamzar with tables for a really good laugh...

Brentis

Not bad. Does a better job than the ScanSoft app I paid good money for, but not quite good enough to edit a manual I want to edit. Text overlapping an image in one section. Would probably do a good job on simpler pdf's if not very complex ones.

Capone

Its $40 (actually $39.95), not free.

Gerald

It is so easy to use. Cool!

yezimary

my bad, it is truly free. Why dont you allow post editing?

Gerald

Adobe Acrobat Professional from at LEAST CS2 up does this. File > Save As > Select Microsoft Word Document from pull down menu. Voila. You can also use Acrobat to save a webpage. File > Create PDF... > From Webpage...
It's all in there. It even OCR's. And it does it all perfectly. Check everything in Acrobat out first before you go looking for third party apps.

Bummerfiend

Personally I think Zamzar rocks - my PDF conversions have come out great when using it, it's completely free and I can even use it to convert my Word docs back to PDF's again. Awesome.

deskUNPDF Pro at $60 ... Zamzar at $0 ... hmmm.

coyote21

It's not free, after you convert about 10 pdfs to doc, it asks you for a "one-time" registration code. to get a code, you go to the website and answer a "simple" math question. No, it's not 1+4 or something like that, it's something like

(669 + 794) x (32 - 662) + 776 = ?

Luckily, there's Google. And the registration code works only once, so you have to get another code each time.

Zamzar and Media-Convert are MUCH better.

Summary: this software is nagware to the extreme! Use online converters instead.

Shorter summary: FPTWD=WTF? Zamzar/Media-Convert=FTW!

MePerson

Avast has detected this program and says it's a virus, after scanning it at [virusscan.jotti.org] all the other scanners say it's clean, I think it's a false positive, just some info for other Avast! users.

DN

Darth_Ninja