a pdf file failed to convert to word, presumably because of size. how do i split a large pdf file into manageable secrtions?

Report · Jun 10, 2014

I'm running Abode Reader XI version 11.0.7. Repeated attempts to convert a large (439 page) file, a dissertation, failed. How do I split a large pdf file like this into manageable sections for conversion?

Report · Jun 10, 2014

Hi jeniseven,

I think your observation is spot-on. That is a large file--even if it falls within the 100 MB file size limit, it may be too complex for the ExportPDF service to process before timing out.

Adobe Reader doesn't allow you to split files: You need Acrobat to do that. If you don't have access to Acrobat, you could download a free 30-day trial from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat.html. And, actually, if you have the free trial, you could simply do a Save As in Acrobat to save that file to Word format--which allows to bypass any bandwidth issues that you may be facing with the online service.

Best,
Sara

Report · Jun 19, 2014

Hi Sara,

I have an 11 MB file which I'm trying to convert from pdf to editable Word. It is a trial transcript from an infamous case I'm trying to use in a class I'm teaching, but I want to do a little editing in Word before I post an excerpt. I just subscribed to Export pdf, but got a message saying, "Conversion failed, file too large or complex to convert". There are no tables or graphs in the transcript, so I assume the problem is size. I now have the transcript in Acrobat, but I don't know what to do next. Can you help?

Thanks,

Mike

Report · Jun 19, 2014

Hi Mike,

Your 11MB file is well within the file-size limits for ExportPDF, but depending on the number of pages, complexity of the file (and yours doesn't sound complex), and your connection speed, it is possible that the service is simply timing out before it can finish processing. These steps can help:

If the file already contains editable text (that is, it isn't a scanned document), try disabling OCR as outlined in this this document: How to disable Optical Character Recognition (OCR) when converting PDF to Word or Excel.
Clear the browser cache and try again.
Try a different browser.

Let's start there. If you still can't export the file to Word, let me know and we'll take it from there.

Best,

Sara