PDF Reflow doesn't handle some elements well, including:įont effects, like Glow or Shadow (in the Word file, the effects are represented by graphics) Document elements that don't convert well
Note: The PDF Reflow feature isn't a replacement for a reader, such as the Windows 8 Reader. If Word doesn't recognize headings that correspond to the table of contents, it might add the table of contents as a plain table of text and numbers or just plain text. For example, if Word doesn't recognize a footnote, it treats the footnote as regular text and might not put it at the bottom of the page. Sometimes, Word doesn't detect an element, and so the Word version doesn't match the original PDF file. When that happens, the text can't be edited. If the PDF contains mostly charts or other graphics, the whole page might show up as an image. But Word keeps the document's reading order.
But when you open a PDF file in Word, it might not look exactly the way it looked as a PDF.įor example, the pages might break at different places. PDF Reflow works best with files that are mostly text-for example, business, legal, or scientific documents. Word makes a copy of the file, so no matter how the document looks when you open it in Word, you always have your original PDF file. To find out how your PDF file will reflow in Word, try it. Word uses a feature called PDF Reflow to convert PDF files into Word documents you can edit.