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Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader).
Select File > Export To and choose your desired Office format (such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint).
In the export dialog, click Settings or Options (depending on the format) before saving.
Ensure the option Retain accessibility tags and structure is checked.
CautionIf your PDF is not already tagged, Acrobat will attempt to auto-tag it during export, but manual tagging before export yields better results.
Click OK to confirm settings, then click Save to export the file.
Open the exported Office file and review the document structure and accessibility tags using the accessibility checker in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
Best practiceAfter export, use Microsoft Office's built-in Accessibility Checker to identify and fix any remaining accessibility issues.
After exporting, always review the Office document with its accessibility checker to ensure all tags and structure were preserved correctly.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
After exporting a PDF to Word, if you see extreme spacing or kerning, you can often fix it directly in Word. Go to the 'Font' settings, then 'Advanced', and change the 'Spacing' option to 'Normal'. This helps reset the text layout that Acrobat might have forced to match the PDF's exact look.
Text can appear as gibberish if the fonts used in the original PDF are not embedded within the file, and you do not have those specific fonts installed on your computer. When Acrobat tries to convert the text without the correct font information, it uses a substitute that often results in unreadable characters. To prevent this, ensure the fonts are embedded in the PDF or installed on your system before exporting.
| Option | Best for |
|---|---|
| Retain Page Layout | Documents with specific designs like forms, tables, or brochures where the exact visual placement of elements is important. |
| Retain Flowing Text | Documents with a lot of text, like reports or articles, where you plan to heavily re-edit the content and want it to flow naturally. |
When exporting a scanned PDF, you should enable the 'Recognize text if needed' option during the export process. This feature uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify and convert the image-based text into editable text. Without this, the exported document might still treat the text as images, making it impossible to select or edit.
It is crucial for source fonts to be embedded or installed because missing fonts are the main reason for garbled or incorrect text in exported documents. When a font is not available, Acrobat tries to substitute it, which often leads to formatting errors, wrong characters, or unreadable text. Ensuring fonts are present helps Acrobat accurately reproduce the document's original appearance and text content in the new format.