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Home Products Inkvolt PDF to Word offline

PDF to Word, offline: convert on your own PC, not on someone's server.

The online converters work by uploading your contract, your medical record or your tax form to a server you don't know. Inkvolt PDF exports a PDF to an editable Word document on your PC or Mac, free, with the file never leaving it. Scanned pages are recognized first, on the PC.

Get Inkvolt PDF from the Microsoft Store (opens in a new tab) Download for Mac (disk image, 34 MB)

01Convert a PDF to Word

  1. Open the PDF in Inkvolt PDF, or pick the Export to Word card on the start page, which asks for the file.
  2. Choose File › Export › Word Document (.docx)…, or type "export" in the command palette (Ctrl+K).
  3. Pick a page range if you don't want the whole document, leave recognize text on scanned pages on, and tick open the file when done to see it in Word right away.
  4. Export. Progress shows with Cancel; nothing is written until the end. The .docx is saved where you chose, and the PDF is unchanged.
Every command is in the palette (Ctrl+K): type "export" and pick Word, Excel or text

02What comes out

The pages are rebuilt as editable Word content, not pasted in as pictures:

  • Paragraphs: wrapped lines joined, hyphenated words rejoined; fonts, sizes, bold, italic and colors kept.
  • Headings as Heading 1 to 6, from type larger than the body text, so they show in Word's navigation pane.
  • Lists: bulleted items as Word bullets, numbered ones keep their numbers.
  • Tables from ruled grids (merged cells, icons in cells) or from text lined up in columns.
  • Pictures inline, transparent ones kept transparent; charts and diagrams drawn with lines and shapes become a picture of the figure.
  • Two-column pages in reading order; a sideways table as a landscape page.
  • Headers, footers and page numbers as Word's own; each page its own section with its size and orientation.
  • Forms: labels under a fill-in line, choices with their boxes and dot leaders become lines with tab stops where they stood; boxed tables keep their row heights, so there is room to write.
  • Fonts that aren't on the PC are listed with their kind (serif, sans serif, monospaced), so Word shows a like font in their place. Accents typeset as separate characters are joined to their letters.

03Scanned PDFs

A scan has no text, only a picture of the page. With recognize text on scanned pages on, pages without a text layer are recognized first, on the PC, with Windows' own text recognition (the language installed in Windows, usually your display language). The export then continues as for any other document. Without an OCR language installed, scanned pages are kept as pictures in Word. To make the PDF itself searchable, run Review › Recognize Text (OCR): the pages get an invisible text layer and the file can be searched, selected and copied.

04Excel and plain text

Excel (.xlsx): every table found becomes one sheet, named after its page, with plain numbers as numbers and merged cells merged. Number columns set close together are kept apart, a long table split into row groups is kept as one, and dot leaders are dropped. Plain text (.txt): the text in reading order, a paragraph per line, table rows tab-separated. XPS, EPUB and the other formats Inkvolt PDF opens export the same way.

05What it won't do

Export to Word rebuilds the layout from what the pages draw, so it is a starting point for editing, not a copy. Text flows in one column (a multi-column page becomes its columns one after another, not Word columns); text boxes, callouts and text over pictures become ordinary paragraphs where they fall; a paragraph split across pages or columns stays split; line spacing is Word's. If you need the page to look exactly as it did, edit the PDF itself: Inkvolt PDF edits text and pictures in place.

06On the Mac

Inkvolt PDF for Mac exports to Word, Excel or plain text through the same layout engine as on Windows, and recognizes scanned pages with the text recognition built into macOS, on the Mac. It is a notarized download for Macs with Apple silicon on macOS 15 or later: download the disk image, or brew install --cask gabandres/inkvolt/inkvolt-pdf.

07Questions

Is the PDF uploaded anywhere?

No. Export to Word runs on your PC or Mac. Inkvolt PDF has no cloud service, no account and no telemetry; the privacy policy lists the few things it does online, each on your action.

Does it convert scanned PDFs?

Yes. Pages without a text layer are recognized first, on the PC. Without an OCR language installed they are kept as pictures in Word.

Will the Word file look exactly like the PDF?

No. The layout is rebuilt from what the pages draw, so it is a starting point for editing, not a copy.

Does it cost anything?

No. Export to Word, Excel and text is free, without a watermark, page limit or trial, on Windows and Mac. Acrobat Reader keeps export for its paid plans; the comparison has the details.

Can I go the other way, Word to PDF?

Yes, on Windows with Microsoft Office installed: File › PDF from Office File… opens the Word, Excel or PowerPoint file in a hidden copy of Office, saves it as PDF and closes it. Web pages become PDFs through Microsoft Edge's WebView2, part of Windows.

Microsoft Word, Excel and Office are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe. Inkvolt is independent and not affiliated with either.