How to Convert Scanned PDF to Word on Mac and Windows?

I want to copy some printed pages from some books which are in PDF format and save them in the computer as editable Word files. This would save me a lot of space if I were to just scan and print those pages rather than the whole book. I don’t want to carry around lot of printed material which gradually becomes bulky. Scanned and saved material on the laptop will occupy very little space. But I want to be able to pick out material and rearrange something for the purpose of talks or classes. Therefore I would like to know how I can lift only the text from a scanned page and copy it to a Word file for rearranging it for my needs.

I offer the typical example to explain why people want to convert scanned PDF to Word: one of the reasons is saving storage space. Scanned PDF exits in the form of pictures so the size of scanned PDF is quite large. After the conversion, pictures are transformed into texts so the size naturally gets smaller. This saved a huge amount of space. Another reason is to make scanned PDF more editable. Compared to scanned PDF, Word is easier to edit with numerous professional edit software nowadays.

To fulfill the need of converting scanned PDF to Word, we strongly recommend this Scanned PDF to Word Converter (for Windows, for Mac) to you. With the built-in OCR technology, it is quite simple to extract content from scanned PDF and store them in Microsoft Word. In addition to Word, this effective Scanned PDF to Word Converter enables you to convert scanned PDF to many other document formats like Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB eBooks, etc.

How to Convert Scanned PDF to Word on Windows?

First, download the right program version for Mac or Windows and follow the installation wizard to get it. Next, give it a try as the steps shown.

Step 1 Import Scanned PDF Document. It supports adding scanned PDF by dragging and dropping document into the main interface.

Step 2 In the pop-up dialogue, choose the language of the PDF document and click “Perform OCR”.

Step 3  Click “To Word” and a “Convert to Word” window pops up.  There,  check “Enalbe OCR”.

Step 4 This is an optional step. In “Output Folder” panel, set the location the converted scanned PDF as your need.

Step 5 Click the big “Convert” button on the bottom of this program to finish scanned PDF to Word conversion automatically.

For Mac users, you are suggested to install OCR Plug-in if it’s the first time for you to use this OCR feature. Here are the steps on how to install OCR Plug-in: 1> Import scanned PDF document to the application; 2> A red icon will appear beside the OCR button which is on the bottom of the app;  3> Swipe the OCR button to “ON”; 4> A dialogue will pop up and click “Install OCR” button; 5> Once the OCR Plug-in is fully downloaded, click “Install and Relaunch”. You can also convert scanned PDF to Word without performing OCR, but the output file will not be editable.

What Is Scanned PDF?

There are the two types of PDFs: Native & Scanned PDF.

Native PDFs are ones that are generated from an electronic source – such as a Word document, a computer generated report, or spreadsheet data. In nearly all PDF reader or editor program, you can select and copy the text in these PDF files.

If you want to store or transmit some physical paper document in electronic  form, the first step is to digitize them by scanning them into digital pictures page by page. Then assemble these pictures into one PDF file. This is where a scanned PDF type comes into play. Even if you can see text in it, the text is part of image, you cannot select or copy it.