20130102

Windows Freeware Applications


#1 – Google Docs

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It’s true, I was using Open Office until I met Google Docs and the latest version includes revision history and change tracking.  Google Docs is fantastic for allowing collaboration where many people can write and edit the same doc in real time.  If you are a home user there is virtually no reason you have to have Microsoft Office anymore.  This will give you a spreadsheet, word program, form creator for websites or to send out surveys via email, and presentation for Powerpoint like projects.  It won’t have all of the complicated formula or features of Access & some of the advanced options and add-ins of Excel, but this should get the casual user by just fine.  The Drawing application though is far too limited, it won’t come close to replacing Visio unless you have the ability to add hundreds of template shapes as well as grid lines and such.  It can do some visual diagram type stuff, but can’t replace Visio for corporate architecture diagrams.

#2 – Paint.NET
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I use Paint.NET as my default paint program on Windows, I don’t use GIMP, Photoshop or any other image editor.  Paint.NET has enough power for anyone with basic graphic artist needs, it can touch up photo’s, create logo’s, handle layers, has a ton of plugin packs for extra effects.  It is completely written with Microsoft .NET so is a flexible framework and anybody can develop modules for it.  It doesn’t have some of the graphic effect features of Photoshop and even GIMP has some more advanced tools but Paint.NET is simple and has an easier to use interface if you are coming from Corel Painter or don’t have much experience with a graphic editing program.  I wrote several reviews on Paint.NET including Paint Dot Net Add On packs.

#3 – FCleaner

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I needed a program that could clean my startup programs, uninstall programs and clean out my system of all cache and temporary files.  FCleaner is by far the best program I have found that does all of this.  It even supports cleaning out FireFox and Chrome cache and temporary files.  This is one of my must have tools and I have been using it for 3+ years for keeping my Windows PC running smoothly.

#4 – Microsoft Security Essentials

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Though MS Security Essentials was number 3 in the top 5 freeware antivirus programs because it failed to detect as much Malware as Avast or Avira it is my favorite antivirus program because of its simplicity and speed.  Need to scan a specific file just right click and scan it, it can also scan the full computer without slowing down your gaming or other activities.  I use the MagicJack and Avira would interfere with call quality when it kicked off a scan, but Security Essentials is very efficient and consumes less memory.

#5 – Google Picasa 3

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My favorite photo album program, Picasa is fast and lets you browse and sort through your photo’s very quickly.  With face recognition it can group your photo’s based on facial pattern matching which is pretty accurate.  Identify one photo as a person and it will automatically categorize all other face patterns that match.  Picasa also has some pretty useful basic edits like rotate, crop, red eye removal and more.  It can easily export or email photo’s and uploads seamlessly to PicasaWeb, though I wish it supported Flickr as well.  Picasa is however falling behind and needs to have a way to directly share the photo with Twitter or Facebook which is lacking and requires you to export the photo first and then upload manually.

#6 – SyncBack

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If you are a multi computer household or have an external drive via network or USB then you need an easy to use program that will backup and/or sync files between your PC and your storage device or other PC’s.  Syncback gets the job done, a sync is where it will go through and update all files that "changed" or were updated, this is also a 2 way sync so say you and your wife had separate computers and both took photo’s, you would sync her photo’s from her PC and yours from your PC into the same locations.  This sync ability is what makes me prefer this program over typical "backup" programs as I keep music and photo’s in sync with other computers in my household for redundancy and to make sure everyone has access to the same files if one PC is offline.  There is a paid version but I just use the Freeware Syncback program and it meets all my backup needs.

#7 – Tweetdeck Twitter Client
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There are many free Twitter clients but few are as feature rich as Tweetdeck, this program lets you manage multiple profiles, create custom columns, searches, find trends and makes updating your Twitter or other Social Media accounts a breeze with its integration with Facebook, LinkedIn, Buzz and more.  Hootsuite is my favorite Twitter web application, but Tweetdeck is my favorite desktop application for managing twitter accounts and makes it easier to join and be part of conversations.

#8 – Google Chrome

Chrome
Okay every great freeware list should include the top browser and Google Chrome takes the top spot lately, it has over 10k extensions to provide nearly all the functionality of Firefox, plus is faster in almost every way.  Google continues to leap ahead of the competition by releasing updates and features more frequently for Chrome than any other browser online it would seem.

#9 – Foxit Reader

FoxitReader
PDF files are the standard for online documents and guides, yet Adobe itself has one of the worst PDF reader applications in that it consumes the most RAM, is slow and requires a startup service just to help the application load in a timely fashion.  Foxit Reader is a much lighter weight and faster PDF reader program that has plugins for all major browsers as well.  Foxit is the only PDF reader program I use on Windows s I was too frustrated by Adobe PDF Reader and its loading performance.

#10 – Runes of Magic

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Okay, so #10 wasn’t actually a program but is a game.  Runes of Magic is one of the best MMORPG games on the web and is very comparable to World of Warcraft except that it is completely FREE!  Get a whole bunch of friends, sign up and starting doing unlimited online gaming together without any of the monthly hosting fee’s.  The game has so many lands, quests and is adding new content all the time.  The world is huge and I have played on and off for over a year and there is just constant new content added, this is by far one of the best free MMO games online and those who like the WoW series but not the cost should seriously consider it.


PDF to Word for free: your options compared
Author finally updated this comparative analysis of free PDF toWord conversion software, re-writing it from the ground up, and in the process doubling the size of the article since the last iteration

Can you perform good PDF to Word/Doc/RTF conversions for free? Absolutely. This posting will present and compare a number of different ways to convert PDF filesinto Word .DOC or .RTF formats, for free and without any watermarks or restrictions. Options discussed include both free programs and free online conversion services.
If you’ve seen this article before you will notice that some new conversion options have been added while a few that were previously mentioned are gone. This is because since I first wrote this a number of excellent conversion options have become available, and I wanted to focus on the services that offer the highest quality. Ten different programs/services are presented here; 5 desktop-based apps and 5 online conversion services. Of the six options presented in the original article only two remain.
Desktop-based apps: (1) Free PDF to Word Converter from SmartSoft; (2) gDOC Creator; (5) AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Free; (4) OpenOffice with PDF import extension; and (5) Some PDF to Word Converter.
Online Conversion services: (6) NuancePDF (7) PDF to Word Free from NitroPDF; (8) Koolwire; (9) Zamzar, and (10) PDFOnline.com.Before I move on to the comparison section, a few issues to address:
Will the document be editable once it is converted?: typically, yes; however the real answer is it depends on your original document and how it was created. Generally speaking you will be able to edit any converted PDF that was created electronically and published using software, which comprises the overwhelming majority of forms and documents that are on the internet. The exception is if your PDF was scanned from a paper document; in this case most converters will consider this to be no different from a photograph, and when converting will produce images inside a .DOC file rather than text. What you need in this case is “Optical Character Recognition” (OCR) software, or a converter than can do OCR (the only option mentioned in this article that can do OCR is NuancePDF); otherwise what you can use free OCR software such as FreeOCR. These programs can “read” documents based on images and convert them to text, but in most cases it will be somewhat labor intensive to get a good conversion, especially if you have a large number of pages.
Online vs. desktop conversions: there are two categories of tools for PDF to Word file conversions. The first is a program that you would install on your PC that would convert the PDF file for you and save the output on your hard drive, which is what you would typically expect. The second category are online conversion websites. With these, you would need to email or upload your file that you want to convert remotely to a website. The actual conversion would occur remotely on their server, and subsequently the converted document is either emailed back to you to a valid email address that you provide or a link is produced that you can click to download the resulting file.
Typically, online conversion services offer a higher quality conversion, although depending on your document that may or may not be the case. Two issues that have to be considered with online conversions are reliability and security. With respect to the former issue (reliability), while most online services will send your converted document within a matter of minutes, it is sometimes the case that your file will arrive hours or even days afterwards. As for the latter issue (security), virtually all of the online services mentioned here promise that your files will be transferred via a secure connection, that your document will not be looked at by a human, and that your email will not be used or shared with any other party. Still, it is up to you to decide whether you are comfortable sending certain private or business documents remotely for conversion.
Converting to images: if you are interested in converting your PDF to images then you’re in the wrong place. For this try the freeware program aptly entitled JPEG to PDF or use the excellent freePDF reader called PDF X-Change Viewer which has an export to images option.

Documents used in the conversion tests:
PDF document screenshot
To perform this test I converted five documents. The first is a PDF document I created using Open Office’s export to PDF function that had the following elements (1) a two-column table with special formatting, which contained (2) three thumbnail-sized jpeg images. My PDFdocument also contained (3) working hyperlinks; and (4) it featured text that was bolded; (5) contained bulleted points, as well as (6) a numbered list. For the sake of simplicity my PDF was only a single page. To see what the document looked like click on the screenshot to the right.

The second document was a simple scanned image that was converted to PDF, to test whether any of the services would perform OCR (optical character recognition) and render an editable document. (only one did). The third document was a trade brochure that contained text, images, charts, and tables, and was 21 pages long, which I imagined would be typical of what most people would need to convert. The fourth document: a single-page PDF I created of a Russian website, for the sole purpose of testing whether any of these services support special characters (none did). Lastly, the fifth document consisted of a bunch of tables full of data, to see how these programs dealt with this.
The objective was to get a converted document that could be loaded into MS Word where the text/contents could be edited and subsequently saved as .DOC format, which is to say any of the following formats would be satisfactory: .DOC, .HTML, and .RTF.

Overview of programs/online services:
Free PDF to Word Converter screenshot
#1: Free PDF to Word Converter from SmartSoft: a free, fully functional desktop-based PDF to Word program that produces excellent results. (See my full review of this program here). More info as follows:

  • Interface: very simple interface and straightforward; single-click conversions; drag and drop files in batch.
  • Commercial use: allowed; the issue is not addressed on their FAQ or anywhere on their site, therefore it is safe to assume that commercial use is ok.
  • Download size: a mere 3.82 megs
  • OCR support: none
  • Strengths: excellent general PDF to DOC conversion for a desktop app.
  • Weaknesses: text is handled via floating windows, no continuous editable stream makes editing large documents cumbersome.
  • The results: I give this one 8/10, if just for being a well rounded free converter. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results sections below for a detailed discussion and head-to-head comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
gDoc Screenshot
#2: gDoc Creator: a huge 148 meg download that installs a number of things, including gDoc Creator, which is the conversion engine that you want (and which is free). Also installs virtual printers that can convert to PDF and XPS from any application, and optionally MS Office add-ons that allow you to export your documents to PDF or XPS from office apps (also free, and can be quite useful). It also installs gDoc Fusion, a trialware PDF reader with a few bells and whistles which you do not necessarily want or need. When installing, I suggest you do NOT check the boxes to allow associating of PDF and XPS extensions with this app, or integrate it with your browser as the default reader. See my full review of this program here. More info as follows:

  • Download size: a whopping 148 megs
  • Commercial use: free for commercial use.
  • How to use: run gDoc creator from the start menu, use the dropdown to select the conversion settings you want, then drag and drop your PDFs onto the interface.
  • OCR support: none
  • Bundled trialware: installs gDoc Fusion, a bundled trialware which you don’t really need. The software will by default launch this program at the conclusion of each conversion process,  which can be somewhat annoying. However, there is a preference (button next to Open…) to turn automatic viewing off.
  • Strengths: excellent handling/extraction of continuous editable text if that is what you’re after, fast; drag and drop interface, virtual printers to create PDFs and XPS from any printable document.
  • Weaknesses: handling of images and tables is rudimentary (lumps these elements together into a single image for each page). Huge download size. Installs virtual printers to create PDFs and XPS from any printable document (a weakness if you don’t want or need them, that is, but could also be a strength).
  • The results: I give this one 8/10. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results sections below for a detailed discussion and head-to-head comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Free Screenshot
#3: AnyBizSoft PDF to Word free: a free for-personal-use copy of this program can be obtained in return for “liking” them on Facebook (click here for details). Note that you will be provided with a registration code which, once entered, enables you to perform conversions without restrictions, which is somewhat unclear from the website (but which I can confirm). The only caveat is that you are NOT allowed to use the free version for commercial use.

This program is very competent and performed an excellent job. More info as follows:
  • Interface: simple, easy, drag-and-drop. Adds a right click “convert PDF to Word” context menu entry, which can potentially be useful.
  • Download size: 6.3 megs
  • OCR support: none
  • Commercial use: NOT allowed. If you are using this software for a business/commercial use you will need to purchase a license.
  • Strengths: excellent handling of images, and formatting, can convert in batch.
  • Weaknesses: text handling could have been better. Restricted to non-commercial use. Forcing you to “like” them on Facebook before receiving the free version of the software.
  • The results: I give this one 8/10. This is a good general PDF to Word converted, and your converted document will look very much like the original. See the results sections below for a detailed discussion and head-to-head comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
OpenOffice with PDF import screenshot
#4: OpenOffice with PDF import extension: if you use OpenOffice you can install the newly release PDF import pluging that will allow you to open PDFs directly into OpenOffice Draw (note: not Writer, which is the word processing module equivalent to MS Word). This does not amount to converting the file to DOC or RTF but allows you to edit the PDF directly, after which you can export it to PDF once more. More info as follows:

  • Download size: a mere 220K for the add-in. OpenOffice itself is about 150 megs download or so. For instructions on how to install OpenOffice extensions go here.
  • OCR support: none
  • Commercial use: free for commercial use.
  • Strengths: instantly open and edit PDFs, good handling of images and formatting, a good option for quick, on-the-fly edits of PDF documents.
  • Weaknesses: text is handled via floating windows, not a continuous editable stream (which can make editing large documents cumbersome). Takes a long time (or flatly would not load) a couple of long, complicated documents that I threw at it.
  • The results: I give this one 7.5/10 overall. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results sections below for a detailed discussion and head-to-head comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
Some PDF to Word Converter Screenshot
#5: Some PDF to Word Converter: another free desktop-based PDF to Word conversions program. Some PDF to Word offers some control over how the PDF will be processed. Results are so-so and depend on your original PDF. See myfull review of this program here. More info as follows:

  • Download size: a mere 690K installer.
  • OCR support: none
  • Commercial use: is not broached on their site, but the program is billed as “totally free” and it is safe to assume that this includes commercial use.
  • Strengths: flexible handling of text, fast.
  • Weaknesses: handling of images and formatting is considerably poor . Weak rendering of overall look and feel and layout.
  • The results: I give this one 5/10 in terms of results. Your converted document is unlikely to look like the original if it contains images and formatting. See the results sections below for a detailed discussion and head-to-head comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
Nuance Online Screenshot2
#6: Nuance PDF: the interesting thing about this online conversion service is that it is integrated into their free NuancePDF Reader (see my full review here). To upload your documents for conversion you would have to install the reader, open your document, and click on the “convert” button, whereby your PDF will be uploaded to their servers for conversion. It is also the only service that offers Optical Character Recognition (OCR), where image-based text is rendered into editable text. It is also excellent in terms of quality. More info as follows

  • Download size: despite being an online service you will need to download the free PDFreader software, approx 19 megs.
  • Reliability: good. At the time of this writing it was the most responsive of all online conversion services mentioned here, sending my files back within minutes. However, I previously had to wait for my files to arrive over an entire weekend.
  • OCR support: Yes, and surprisingly high quality. This is the only conversion service mentioned in this article that offers OCR.
  • Commercial use: allowed. I scoured their website and read their legal notices without finding any specific mention of this issue.
  • Privacy: they will not sell or share your email (from their privacy policy, which doesn’t comment on files sent for conversion). Aside from that, their terms of use link was not clickable, which is a strange omission. This is not to say that your files will not be held in confidence and disposed of properly, but that I wasn’t able to read a clear policy that expressly stated this.
  • Strengths: excellent handling of images and formatting, OCR support, integration with a desktop PDF reader, good handling of text and images, secure upload connection, can convert PDF to Excel as well.
  • Weaknesses: no clear terms of service statement on their site. Response variability, which afflicts most popular online services, although I will say that at the moment this service is being quite reliable. Colors can at times be slightly off in the converted document.
  • Freewaregenius 5-Star Pick
    The results: I give this one 9/10 overall. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results section below for more detailed discussion and comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
PDF to Word Free Screenshot - the interface
#7: PDF to Word Free from NitroPDF: another excellent online conversion service, and definitely one of the best conversion engines mentioned in this article. Results are generally excellent; see my full review of this service here. More info as follows:

  • Reliability: variable. At the time of this writing they were scheduled to update their servers within 2 weeks or so, at which point they promise better responsiveness. In my previous use of this service I generally received my files within minutes but also remember having to wait up to 12 hours for the files to appear.
  • OCR support: None.
  • Commercial use: is allowed. I scoured their website and read their legal notices without finding anything to the contrary.
  • Privacy: they promise to not look at your documents, not share your email, and delete your files as soon as they send you the email response.
  • Strengths: excellent handling of images and formatting, as well as text. A related service can also convert PDF to Excel format.
  • Weaknesses: images can at times end up behind other elements, giving the impression that they did not make it into the converted document; variability in response time, which afflicts most popular online services.
  • The results: I give this one 8.5/10 overall. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results section below for more detailed discussion and comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
Koolwire Screenshot
#8: Koolwire: this is another web service that allows you to either upload your PDF or simply email it as an attachment (to doc[at]koolwire.com), whereby it will convert and send it back to you by return mail. When this article was first published Koolwire was amongst the best options, however it has since been superseded by some of the other programs and services mentioned above.

Still, Koolwire does a great job. Here are more notes on this one.
  • How it works: you can email a file that is less than 10 megs in size. Files over 10 megs can be uploaded through the Koolwire website.
  • Reliability: variable. One big negative is that it will flatly refuse to convert some complicated files (which the others incidentally had no problems with). Otherwise the files convert either within a few minutes. I previously had to wait up to 5 hours though.
  • OCR support: None.
  • Commercial use: allowed.
  • Privacy policy: their legal blurb states that users will not receive any unsolicited emails at any point. They also maintain “the right (but not the obligation) to verify Content (i.e. view your documents) at their sole discretion”. Files (input and output) will be deleted upon being emailed and/or downloaded.
  • Strengths: good handling of text, excellent handling of tables.
  • Weaknesses: response variability; will fail to convert some files without explanation, handling of images and tables is rudimentary (lumps these elements together into a single image for each page).
  • The results: I give this one 7.5/10 overall. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results section below for more detailed discussion and comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
Zamar Screenshot
#9: Zamzar: this is a web-based file conversion service that I first reviewed in Feb, 2007. Zamzar will let you upload a file through its web interface, convert it, then email you a download link. It covers a very wide range of possible input and output formats. More notes as follows:

  • How it works: max uploadable file size is 100 megs in the free version. It will let you upload files in batch, which can be very useful. You will have to specify the desired output format (.DOC) in the dropdown.
  • Reliability: good. I was always able to access my converted files within a matter of minutes.
  • OCR support: None.
  • Privacy policy: your files are deleted once the conversion happens and the converted files are deleted once the download link expires. Also, to quote “files stored for download are only accessible by Zamzar”. Another quote: “Zamzar does not rent, sell, or share your personal information or email address with any other companies.”
  • Strengths: good handling of text.:
  • Weaknesses: response variability, handling of images and tables is rudimentary (lumps these elements together into a single image for each page).
  • Results: I give this one 7/10 overall. See the results section below for more detailed discussion and comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.
PDFOnlinedotcom screenshot
#10: PDFOnline.com: an online service that converts on the spot, no email address or waiting necessary. More info below:

  • Reliability: high, since you do not need to wait for a return email and your conversions will occur more or less on the spot.
  • OCR support: None.
  • Commercial use: seems to be allowed, since the issue is not broached on the site.
  • Privacy policy: they will not send you unsolicited email and, to quote their site , “will not monitor, edit, or disclose any personal information about you or the documents you submit for conversion, including their contents, without your prior permission”.
  • Strengths: good handling of both text and images, best handling of tables. An excellent overall converter.
  • Weaknesses: none that I can think of. This one was surprisingly excellent.
  • Freewaregenius 5-Star Pick
    The results: I give this one 9/10 overall. Your converted document will generally look like the original. See the results section below for more detailed discussion and comparison against the other software mentioned in this article.

Comparison of Results:
Image handling: a common issue here is that many services blend all images and visual elements on the page into a single page-wide background image, as opposed to rendering distinct images and distinct formatting. This is obviously ok if you are merely interested in editing the text, but will make editing a document holistically somewhat difficult.
  1. Free PDF to Word Converter from SmartSoft: does not create a single background image that lumps all images within it, which is a good thing. Instead it will render distinct, individual images, which can be easily moved around or manipulated. **Excellent**
  2. gDOC Creator: blends all images and formatting within a page into a single background image. This makes it difficult and/or labor intensive to edit images or change image placement, but can make life simpler if you just want to edit the text.
  3. AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Free: image handling seems to vary but is generally excellent; at times it will combine all images and formatting on a page into a single background image, while other times the images are extracted individually and in the correct placement. It seems to depends on the source. **Excellent**
  4. OpenOffice with PDF import extension: images are rendered correctly where they should be, and are generally easy to work with. **Excellent**
  5. Some PDF to Word Converter: unpredictable. Will extract individual images at times, while other times it simply will not extract any images at all. In general image placement and layout will most certainly be incorrect.
  6. NuancePDF: does not create a single background image that lumps all images into it; rather, it seems to merge adjoining clusters of images together, which actually kind of works well and generally speaking is not a bad way to handle images. **Excellent**
  7. PDF to Word Free from NitroPDF: image handling seems to vary but is generally excellent; at times it will combine all images and formatting on a page into a single background image, while other times the images are extracted individually and in the correct placement. It seems to depends on the source. **Excellent**
  8. Koolwire: blends all images and formatting within a page into a single background image
  9. Zamzar: blends all images and formatting within a page into a single background image
  10. PDFOnline.com: image handling seems to vary but is generally excellent; at times it will combine all images and formatting on a page into a single background image, while other times the images are extracted individually and in the correct placement. It seems to depends on the source. **Excellent**
Handling of text and/or text boxes: this is probably the most important element, since it is probably safe to assume that the point of converting a PDF to Doc is to allow for editing the text. A number of issues here; does the text render accurately? To what extent does the converter produce a continuous editable stream? Sometimes the text is interrupted by carriage returns on every line or (worse) each line of the text is placed in its own individual text box, which may requires copying and pasting into a new consolidated text box (and makes editing quite difficult).
  1. Free PDF to Word Converter from SmartSoft: each line of text was its own text box, filling the page with dozens of separate text boxes and potentially making the editing process labor intensive. In some complex documents case can be handled incorrectly (e.g. “PuBlishing firMs” instead of “Publishing Firms”.
  2. gDOC Creator: excellent text handling; a continuous editable stream of text uninterrupted by carriage returns where they shouldn’t be. Text always rendered correctly. **Excellent**
  3. AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Free: continuous text in a single text box, but with carriage returns at the end of each line, interrupting flow. Text was always rendered correctly.
  4. OpenOffice with PDF import extension: each line of text was its own text box, filling the page with dozens of separate text boxes and potentially making the editing process labor intensive.
  5. Some PDF to Word Converter: this one allows the user to change the settings for text extraction in order to get exactly what you want (using text boxes, auto merge, deleting line breaks). If you just want to extract the text quickly from a PDF it might be a good option.
  6. NuancePDF: a continuous editable stream of text uninterrupted by carriage returns where they shouldn’t be. However, the text case sometimes did not render correctly (e.g. “IncrEasInG portalIzatIon” instead of “Increasing Portalization”).
  7. PDF to Word Free from NitroPDF: a continuous editable stream of text uninterrupted by carriage returns where they shouldn’t be. However, the text case sometimes did not render correctly (e.g. “IncrEasInG portalIzatIon” instead of “Increasing Portalization”).
  8. Koolwire: seems to handle text well, producing a continuous editable stream of text uninterrupted by carriage returns where they shouldn’t be. However, I couldn’t tell if it had any of the case rendering problems mentioned above because it flatly refused to convert the complicated document where they occured (without explanation).
  9. Zamzar: continuous text in a single text box, but with carriage returns at the end of each line, interrupting flow. Also, the text case sometimes did not render correctly (e.g. “IncrEasInG portalIzatIon” instead of “Increasing Portalization”).
  10. PDFOnline.com: a continuous editable stream of text uninterrupted by carriage returns where they shouldn’t. Moreover the text case always rendered correctly. **Excellent**
Handling of Tables: most converters simply recreate tables using a combination of text boxes and formatting elements, so you’re editing rows but not columns (i.e. you cannot right-click ’delete column’ or something like in Word that because there are no columns).
If your document is table-intensive or if tables are your primary focus you would be better off with something that converts to Excel rather than to Word. Check out PDF to Excel Free, an online PDF to Excel service from the makers of PDF to Word Free, or try using”Excel” as the output format in NuancePDF.
  1. Free PDF to Word Converter from SmartSoft: no actual tables produced, but did an excellent job of “recreating” tables using text boxes, including the formatting. But no actual tables produced.
  2. gDOC Creator: recreated tables using text boxe and formatting, with an end result that looked quite acceptable.
  3. AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Free: recreated tables using text boxes and formatting, but the two elements were not quite in sync and the end result looked somewhat messy.
  4. OpenOffice with PDF import extension: no tables, of course, since the editing takes place in the drawing program (OpenOffice Draw).
  5. Some PDF to Word Converter: created a complete and total mess. Neither the content no’r the look of the table was preserved.
  6. NuancePDF: recreated tables using text boxes and formatting, with an end result that looked quite acceptable.
  7. PDF to Word Free from NitroPDF: recreated tables using text boxes and formatting, with an end result that looked quite acceptable.
  8. Koolwire: was able to recreate actual tables, as well as recreate the formatting. Very impressive. **Excellent**
  9. Zamzar: recreated tables using text boxes and formatting, but the two elements were not quite in sync and the end result looked somewhat messy.
  10. PDFOnline.com: was able to recreate actual tables, as well as recreate the formatting. Very impressive. **Excellent**