Microsoft Word PDF editor evaluation: The popular word processing program makes modifying PDF text a breeze

At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• First-class text modifying abilities
• Easy to include and modify images
• Readily offered on a lot of PCs and Macs

Cons

• May have difficulty properly showing files with heavy format or great deals of graphics
• No PDF annotation tools
• No simple method to restructure file pages

Our Verdict

Microsoft Word can competently modify PDFs with great deals of text, however it can’t change a devoted PDF editor for complicated files.

Price When Reviewed

Microsoft Word PDF editor: Free with Microsoft Word

Best Prices Today: Microsoft Word PDF editor

Microsoft does not consist of a PDF editor in its Office suite, however it has actually made it simpler to modify PDFs in Microsoft Word over the last numerous years. It still can’t take on a devoted PDF app like Adobe Acrobat Pro for complex files, however it’s capable enough for content edits of basic PDFs.

This evaluation belongs to our finest PDF editors roundup. Go there to find out about our screening and how all the rivals carried out.

To import a PDF into Word, you open it similar to any other file– choose File > > Open, then search for your file, choose it, and click the Open button. Word makes a copy of the PDF and transforms its contents into a format that Word can show. Microsoft recommends that Word works best with PDFs that are mainly text. Files which contain format such as columns, tables, frames, endnotes, and font results, along with those with a great deal of graphics, take longer to pack and might show in a different way in Word than in the initial file. This substantiated in my tests. Text blocks and other format components were frequently shown out of location, and Word was not able to pack a couple of graphics-heavy PDFs. Text-based files, on the other hand, were regularly rendered consistently.

Michael Ansaldo/IDG

Not remarkably, Word makes it simple to customize PDF text. Including and erasing text, changing margins, formatting paragraphs, and altering typefaces and font sizes works simply as if you were modifying a Word file. Dealing with graphics in PDF is likewise comparable to utilizing them in Word docs. You can include images utilizing the Pictures tool from the Insert menu and drag them to rearrange them on the page. Text instantly re-wraps around the image. You can select graphic modifying alternatives such as cropping, including a border, and placing captions from Word’s design tab or by right-clicking on the image and selecting from the pop-up menu.

After you’re done modifying your file, you can transform it to a PDF or Microsoft Word file by choosing the Save As function in the File menu and picking the proper format.

Microsoft Word does not consist of PDF annotation tools per se, however you can get innovative with its file modifying abilities. Shapes can be contributed to a PDF utilizing the Design tab, for instance, and you can highlight text and freehand attract a PDF utilizing tools in the Draw tab. Reordering pages is harder since Word transforms files to a single scrolling file. These are just the constraints of dealing with PDFs in a word processor. For major markup and annotating you’re going to require a program developed for PDF modifying.

Michael Ansaldo/IDG

The primary benefit of utilizing Microsoft Word to modify your PDFs is familiarity with the application. The majority of us utilize Word every day of our working lives, which need to make it a go-to alternative for modifying the contents of text-based PDFs. If your requirements extend beyond that, however, you’ll likely require an authentic PDF editor. Take a look at our guide to the very best totally free and paid PDF choices

Best Prices Today: Microsoft Word PDF editor