Converting PDF to RTF

Most converters from PDF to Word/RTF don’t do a very good job. If the text in the PDF is flowing straight from top to bottom, no problem. But if the text is in tables, columns, most converters mess up, so the garbled result is useless for further editing. I found a converter now that does a decent job, both online and as a desktop application.

Comparing several online converters, I stumbled upon http://www.pdfonline.com/pdf-to-word-converter/  It was a bit slower than others, and it converted only the first four pages of the document. However, the tables in the PDF file were well converted into tables in the RTF file; there were some issues with table cells with two lines of text, but aside from that, very well.

PDF Online

The only issue is the limit of four pages. Apparently, it does not depend on the text size, but on the processing time, according to the FAQ:

2. Is there a size limit?
No, there is no size limit. However, there is a limit on how long the server will take to convert your document. For large documents, we recommend that you download the desktop version.

So I downloaded the desktop version (BCL easyConverter Desktop 3), which you can try for 15 days. The trial version also has a size limit of three pages. But for $19.95, it is an affordable application, and well worth the money if you convert PDF files more than a few times.

What are your experiences with this or other PDF converters?

This post is also available in: Dutch

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