I tried to convert pdf doc to Open Office by Apache and it is totally illegible in most parts. What can I do?

[joelg28689502]

I use Apache Open Office for free as opposed to purchasing Microsoft Word. I tried to convert a pdf doc by purchasing the pdf convert software for $26 and it did not work. The converted document is garbled and mostly illegible. Did I just waste my money on this conversion software? I guess maybe I should have just retyped it??

thank you so much for your help

[try67 · Accepted solution]

It's likely that the original PDF is the issue. Even if it looks OK on screen, many files were created using non-standard software, which results and corrupt files. Try copying the text directly from the PDF and pasting it in OpenOffice or even in Notepad. Does it come out OK? If not, then the PDF file uses an incorrect font encoding. As such, there's nothing much you can do about it, unless you completely re-create it.