File Juicer for macOS

Convert PDF to Word on macOS

The quickest way to convert a PDF to Word today depends on what software you already have.

Microsoft Word

If you have Microsoft Word, just open the PDF with File > Open. Word converts it to an editable document automatically. This works well for text-based PDFs and is the simplest option for most people.

LibreOffice (free)

LibreOffice is a free office suite that can open PDFs and save them as DOCX files. The conversion quality is similar to Word for straightforward documents.

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat produces the best results for complex layouts with columns, tables and mixed content, but it requires a subscription. For occasional conversions, Adobe also offers a free online conversion tool on their website.

Scanned Documents and OCR

File Juicer does not convert scanned images to text. For that you need Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

• macOS Ventura and later have Live Text built in. Preview can select and copy text from scanned PDFs without any extra software.
• Microsoft Word performs OCR automatically when you open a scanned PDF.
• Adobe Acrobat gives the best OCR accuracy for complex or poor-quality scans.
• Mac App Store has several dedicated OCR apps. Accuracy varies, so check reviews before buying.
• VueScan includes OCR and is a good option if you also scan documents regularly.

Using File Juicer to Extract Text and Images from PDF

File Juicer is not a PDF converter, but it can extract the text and images from a PDF as separate files, which gives you the raw material to rebuild a document manually. This is useful for simple text-based PDFs without complex layout, and when you do not have Word or LibreOffice available.

File Juicer will not work on encrypted PDFs or scanned documents.

PDF to RTF or Plain Text

RTF (Rich Text Format) preserves fonts, font sizes and colours but not multi-column or table layout. Word, Pages and TextEdit can all open RTF files.

File Juicer uses the same PDF-to-RTF engine as Apple Preview. You can do the same extraction in Preview by copying and pasting text page by page. File Juicer extracts the whole document at once and saves the images to a separate folder, which you then place manually when rebuilding the layout in Word.

These are the File Juicer preferences recommended for extracting text and images to rebuild a Word file:

AutoFormat in Word

Extracting both ASCII and RTF is worth doing, as sometimes it is easier to rebuild the document from plain text without the formatting. Word's AutoFormat function can turn plain text back into structured headings and paragraphs.

Extracting Images from PDF

File Juicer extracts images from PDF without re-compression, preserving the full quality stored in the original file. See the PDF format page for details on what types of images can be extracted and how to handle unusual cases.

Try File Juicer

You can download and try File Juicer free from the File Juicer page. See the User Guide and File Format tips for its other functions.