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Renee34253
Participant
May 20, 2023
Question

Export PDF to Word coming out garbled

  • May 20, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 3355 views

I paid for the Acrobat Export PDF so I could use my editing tools in Word to help me proofread documents. But every time I convert the files (I've tried a few different PDFs), I'm left with garbled nonsense in my Word document. I've checked that my system is up to date. I'm frustrated that I paid for this product when I can't use it for the one function I needed. Is there anything I can do to get this to work correctly?

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1 reply

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
May 20, 2023

Hi@Renee34253,

It looks like your original PDF didn't have the fonts embedded into it when it was created and you don't have them/it on your current computer. So when you export to Word, it doesn't have the font and you end up with gibberish.

 

I did notice that the italics sentence in the top line is retained as well as another mid-page, so that means that particular italics font is on your current computer and everything is working fine.

 

One technique that corrects this is to find what font(s) the original PDF used, install the missing font on your current computer, save to a new PDF, and then re-export to Word. You can use either of these 2 ways to discover what font(s) is required:

  • File / Properties and click the Font tab at the top. Scroll down the list to see if you can identify the missing font. Font names and encoding technologies have changed over the years, so if your original PDF was created a few years ago, a font like "Times" could today be any of a handful of varieties.  As you view the list, not the specific name of the font.
  • Bring up the Edit PDF tool and choose the Edit Text tool. It will show the type properties in the right-hand panel — font, size, weight, etc. If the font field is blank, then that's the missing font.

 

Get back to us with what you discover about the fonts in the original PDF. That will help us guide you to the next step.

 

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
R
Renee34253Author
Participant
May 22, 2023

I checked the fonts of the document (it was created by the client within the last few weeks), and they are all listed as embedded. Does this mean that every time I want to use this software to convert PDFs, I'd have to embed new fonts? (Clients are always giving files that were very recently created, so it's not like I'm getting out-of-date PDFs.) 

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