Can you send me the PDF and Word document?

By Kelly Barkhurst
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September 16, 2022
8 Min read
In graphic design
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As a designer, I’m asked more than I’d like to admit if I can please send the PDF and the Word document for review. Ugh. I often catch myself rolling my eyes. My design is not a Word document. In this scenario, my designs typically come from Illustrator, InDesign, and sometimes are coded websites.

But…did you know I always quickly (and easily) give my clients exactly what they asked for — a PDF and a Word document.

Here’s how…

I use Adobe Acrobat Pro, which has an incredible secret power: converting PDFs to Word documents!

In Adobe Acrobat DC, open the PDF file you’ve exported from your design program.

Then go to File > Export To > Microsoft Word. Next, select if you want the .doc (> Word 1997-2003 document) or .docx (> Word document).

How to convert PDFs into Word docs from Adobe Acrobat DC.

It’s that easy. Voila. You’ll have a Word doc that your client can use Track Changes on or copy/paste as they’re accustomed to.

Notes: I also make sure to let clients know that the Word document will not be perfect as the file doesn’t genuinely exist in Word. I also ask for tracked changes so I can easily see what I need to update in InDesign or Illustrator.

Follow along with this Video

This video shows how to turn a PDF from InDesign or Illustrator into a PDF for clients. It also shows how to use a Google Chrome extension called FullPage to export a webpage as a PDF that can be converted to Word via Adobe Acrobat.

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I’m often asked, “Can you send me the PDF and 
a Word document?” This is normally followed  

0:00:07.760,0:00:15.600
by a little bit of eye-rolling or sighing if 
I’m by myself, but of course, I always say,  

0:00:15.600,0:00:20.800
“Yes,” and I’m able to do it really quickly 
and easily. So, I’m going to show you how. So  

0:00:20.800,0:00:27.120
of course, if I’m designing a print piece, 
it’s probably in Illustrator or InDesign,  

0:00:27.120,0:00:37.200
so I’m just going to flip to a PDF that’s in Adobe 
Pro DC. If you go to File > Properties, you can  

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see some details about it, and you can see it was 
made in InDesign. So, when it’s coming from these  

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design programs, the text is really text, images are 
images. All of those details are saved in the PDF.

0:00:52.080,0:01:02.160
So, you can use this quick Export to >Microsoft 
Word option right from Adobe Acrobat Pro.  

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To get a Word document, I’m going 
to save it right to my desktop.

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It takes just a few seconds, and it opens it in 
Word. So, it’s not 100% perfect, but  

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what this allows is your client to be able to 
copy and paste, to use tracking and make edits  

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in a way that they’re used to maybe with their 
team. I just always ask, first I say, “Hey  

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this was not designed in Word, so it might not 
look perfect. The fonts might not be perfect  

0:01:42.160,0:01:44.800
but this will give you a start 
and it’s what I can give you.”  

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So, it meets what their ask is, and it’s a 
great, a great way to get a PDF made quickly.  

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All right, so another option is what if 
you’re on a website. I’ll have clients say,  

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“Okay, that’s great. You know I’d like to edit 
some things. Can you give that to me in Word?”

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All right, again, you’re thinking this 
is code. No, I can’t give it to you  

0:02:08.400,0:02:15.520
in Word. You can copy and paste it, right?” But,  
I say, “Yes, of course, I can. So, I use one of my  

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favorite tools. It’s up here. It’s a Google 
Chrome Extension. It’s called Go Full Page.

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So you click it, and it will take a picture of 
the full length of your website. So all the way  

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scrolling down. So that’s why I love this one is it
doesn’t just cut off what I can see in my viewport.

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All right, so then I select “Download 
as PDF.” So this is a free extension.

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All right, so I’m going to double-click open that 
PDF. All right, so right now the PDF has been turned  

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into an image. All right, so an image does not have 
text anymore. It’s all pixels. Right, soo, if I just  

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did File > Export to Microsoft Word it is going 
to export it for me, but what it’s going to do

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is just simply move the picture. One image that I 
can move around into Word. Okay, so that probably  

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doesn’t meet what your client is asking for, but 
there’s still a quick workaround here in Adobe.

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So, I’m going to go to Edit PDF. When I do 
that it’s actually going to convert my scan  

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page to editable text. So now my words have 
become a font, right. It didn’t load the exact  

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font that I had on my website, but 
it’s close enough. It’s actual letters, right. Okay, so now I can close my Edit view. You can see it’s still text that I can select now.

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This time when say I say, File > Export to Microsoft Word, it will keep the text that it’s now created.

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And now, back in Word, I have text that 
I could decide to put on Tracking for  

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and catch myself SMILING.

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Right, okay, so hopefully, this trick will help 
you next time a client or someone asks you,  

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“Can you send me the PDF and a Word document?”
when you turn over your beautiful design.  

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Good luck and happy designing!

I hope you found this helpful.

The opposite: Convert a Word document to a PDF

As a designer, I always think about editable files versus shareable

files. And a Word document is a Microsoft editable

file, just like in Photoshop,

we have a Photoshop document (psd) or in an Adobe

Illustrator document (.a). So if you are sending a Word document

to a client or turning it in for a school assignment,

it is not a friendly,

file to send, you want to send it as a polished file that can’t

be changed. And that would be typically a PDF.

Lots of places where you might be putting files,

like on the web, a PDF is rendered on the web,

a Word document is not. So if you are trying to share a document

from a website or put it into Blackboard,

you want to use a PDF.

And from Word, it’s really pretty easy. .

it’s just some extra steps. So I’m here on my Mac and I’m going

to say file save as. And I’m going to choose my

desktop. And right here in file format,

just like you would do in your Adobe products, you have an option of

file types. And you can see there’s an export format.

So I’m going to choose PDF. You can see I have an extension .pdf

and click export.

It’s as easy as that. That’s it. Now,

what I’d like to show you is when I open my PDF,

because I am in Adobe Acrobat and mine is pro,

I use creative cloud. I have an option that

I can export a PDF back to a Word document.

So this is a great tool for,

converting PDFs,

because if you think about it, if I have a PDF from InDesign,

and I’m working with copy editors who do not use Adobe products,

this allows me to give them a Word document

where they can redline it and work on copy.

The same for a website. If you can turn a website into a PDF

and then export it as a Word document,

that allows people to take that content and edit it and provide it back

to you. So this is a really great tip and tool that I use:

is within Adobe Acrobat, you can save your PDF back to

a Word document. And I’m going to replace it.

And now we’re going to look at that and you can see I can

go back and forth between the two. Alright,

so, just look for Save As on both. In

Word, it’s save as and choose your format.

Right. And in Adobe Acrobat,

it is going to be File > Export a PDF,

and then you have your options. Alright,

so I hope this helps you as you share files

and as you sort out what type of file should be editable versus what

should be shareable files and PDF falls into that,

“Happy to share” type of file.

Search InDesign and Search via Adobe Acrobat

Sometimes you need to change a word or phrase in a sizeable InDesign document that includes placed PDFs. The default search feature in InDesign only queries InDesign text, so this search excludes the embedded charts and PDFs that may be part of your document. A workaround is to search/query in Adobe Acrobat instead. To do this, export your InDesign file as a PDF and then search for your keyword in Adobe Acrobat, which turns PDFs and many charts/diagrams into editable and searchable text.

Happy Designing!

About the author

Kelly Barkhurst

Designer to Fullstack is my place to geek out and share tech solutions from my day-to-day as a graphic designer, programmer, and business owner (portfolio). I also write on Arts and Bricks, a parenting blog and decal shop that embraces my family’s love of Art and LEGO bricks!

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