Export PDF to Word Inconsistent word counts

Report · Feb 07, 2018

I have been using Acrobat Pro for many years, more than I care to remember . I use Export to Export PDF tool a lot. I've recently worked on pdf conversion to word and I noticed indescrepancies in word counts depend on what methosd I use to export pdf to word, using RTF, DOCX or DOC. Has anyone every come accross this issue before and if so is there any reason why. Here are my five tests I preformed below on the same file with different word counts each time:

Test_1:

Removed the unwanted languages and pages received from Team. Originally this was a Multi-lingual manual, I only required the French language for word count analysis.

Word Count is: 6142.

Test_2:

Opened the supplied PDF.

Removed all pdf pages.

Exported to MS Word using Export PDF in Acrobat Pro DC to DOCX

Word Count is: 6054.

Test_3

Opened the supplied PDF.

Removed all pdf pages.

Exported to RTF using Export PDF in Acrobat Pro DC to RTF

Word Count is: 5281.

Test_4

Opened the supplied PDF from the client.

Removed all pdf pages.

Exported to Word 97-2003 using Export PDF in Acrobat Pro DC to doc

Word Count is: 5281.

Test_5

Opened the Test 4 pdf and resaved as Test 5 PDF from the client.

Exported to MS Word using Export PDF in Acrobat Pro DC to DOCX

Word Count is: 6054.

Thank you for taking the time to read my query.

Report · Feb 07, 2018

Word's Word count is notoriously undocumented and often a bit unexpected, so we can't say what causes Word to give different answers. You should of course examine each Word file carefully side by side to see if there is extra content (such as footers or unintended text) that is being counted. Otherwise you may need to get into details. It is not always clear how to count the words. Should a footnote reference count? An en dash? You have an interesting study to make.

Report · Feb 07, 2018

Thank you for the reply, yes I'm going to enjoy tackling this conundrum . If I get any more information I will post it. But I will do as you suggest, run a compare on both sets of files and see if there is any additional en dashes.