If you have PDF documents that you’d prefer to have in text format on your Google Drive account, being able to convert PDFs to Google Doc will allow you to do that. Show
However PDF conversion isn’t as straightforward as many people think. Sure, it’s easy to quickly convert a PDF file to a Google Doc file. However, what you enjoy in convenience comes at a price in formatting and style, as you’ll see in the examples below. Table of Contents Thankfully there are workarounds to keep original formatting from the PDF document. Whether you opt for this approach depends on whether you care much about the formatting in the first place. We also made a short video on your YouTube channel that you can check out if you want follow along with the steps. Preparing To Convert a PDF To Google Doc FormatBefore you convert a PDF file over to Google Doc format, you want to make sure that all of the information that’s supposed to be part of the PDF document is all in place. For example, if you’re converting a PDF lease agreement, the agreement should be filled out with all of the relevant information first. You can do this with any one of your favorite PDF editors. If you don’t have a PDF editor on your computer, the easiest way to do this is using a free online PDF editing tool like SmallPDF. Once all of the forms in the document are filled out, you can download the file in PDF format. It’s now ready to be converted to Google Doc format. Quickly Convert a PDF To Google Doc FormatThe fastest method to convert any PDF file straight into Google Doc format is to initiate the conversion process from right inside Google Drive.
What you’ll notice immediately is that while the text all imports correctly from most PDF documents, the formatting is rarely perfect. Common mistakes that occur during automatic conversion include:
If you made sure to fill out the fields in the PDF document before the conversion, the text in those fields will convert over fine. However, this automatic conversion approach is best used if you don’t really care about formatting and just want to transfer all of the text from a PDF document into a Google Doc. Convert a PDF To Google Doc Format With FormattingThere is a way to get around this formatting failure, and that’s taking advantage of Microsoft Word’s more accurate conversion process. If you use Microsoft Word to convert PDF to a Microsoft Word document, you can then convert that document to a Google Doc document. All of the original formatting will be retained and brought over.
You may need to select Enable Editing at the top of the window to save the file to your PC in Word format.
This will convert the Word document into Google Docs format. As you can see, this newly converted file contains a much better formatted version of the original PDF document.
This will remove “.DOCX” at the top of the document and store the document as a full Google Doc. This approach may require a few extra steps, but if the formatting of the original PDF document is important to you, this is a good method to bring that formatting over. Other Ways To Convert PDF DocumentsThere are plenty of other tools and approaches you can use to convert a PDF document to Word or Google Docs. The option you choose depends which tools you have at your disposal.
As you can see, when you want to convert PDFs to Google Docs, you have lots of great options available. Can you convert a PDF to a Google Doc?To do this, click on "File" in the upper right corner. Then, click on "Save as Google Doc." This saves the document to your Drive as a Google Doc. Ensure that the document has the same formatting as the original PDF.
How do I make a PDF editable in Google Docs?Here's how:. Upload the file to Google Drive. Click New > File Upload > then select your file.. Open the PDF with Google Docs. Locate your PDF within Google Drive, then right-click and select Open With > Google Docs.. Edit your document. Once your file opens in Google Docs, you can now start to make edits.. How do I convert a PDF to Google Doc and keep formatting?Convert a PDF To Google Doc Format With Formatting
If you use Microsoft Word to convert PDF to a Microsoft Word document, you can then convert that document to a Google Doc document. All of the original formatting will be retained and brought over.
How do I copy and paste a PDF into a Google Doc?Go to the spot in your Google Doc where you want the link to your PDF. Go to Edit > Paste in the menu or right-click and choose “Paste.” When the link appears in your document, you'll see an option to replace it with an icon that displays the PDF name.
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