How to insert a PDF file into a Word document

Posted on March 16, 2008 at 6:20 am

Recently, I had to take a few pages out of a PDF document and put them into a Word document that I needed to send to a client. In the process of doing so, I figured out a few ways that you can go about inserting a PDF document into a Word document and that’s what I’m going to explain here!

The first way and actually the best way is to convert the entire PDF document into a Word document and then simply copy and paste the pages. You can basically convert a PDF to Word using a cool free service called Zamzar.com, which can convert between hundreds of different file formats.

I’ve written an article on how to convert a PDF document to Word, JPEG, or Excel already, so read that to do the conversion. It’s super easy! Basically, you just click Browse, find your PDF document, and then choose DOC for the format you want to convert to. Enter you email address and click Convert!

convert pdf to word

Now that you have your PDF converted to Word, it’s pretty simple now! You can either copy and paste the text from one Word document into the other. If there is a lot of text and you want to include the entire document, you can actually go to the beginning of the page where you want the new text to be included and then go to Insert, choose Object and then choose Text from File.

text from file

Choose the Word document and it will automatically take all of the pages from that Word document and put them into the current location of your cursor. If you are on page 10 and there are five pages, it will insert the pages from page 10 to 15 and shift all of the other pages down.

There is also another way you can “insert” a PDF into a Word document, but it involves creating a hyperlink to the the PDF document instead of actually copying and pasting the entire pages. This is useful, if you just want to reference the PDF document (or any file for that matter) from within your Word document.

In order to do this, simply type in some text in Word that you want to refer to your document by, such as “Report”, and then right-click on it and choose Hyperlink.

hyperlink

Now you want to browse to the location of your PDF document. It’s always best to make sure that both the Word document and the PDF document are in the same folder when creating a hyperlink. In that way, you can transfer your project to any other computer and as long as the two documents are in the same folder together, the link will still work.

Just as a note, if you convert your PDF to a Word document and it looks horrible, you can try converting the PDF document to a JPEG image and then insert the image into Word. You can read the other mentioned article that I wrote earlier on how to convert a PDF to JPEG. It’s actually using the same service, Zamzar.com.

Hopefully, that helps someone get their PDF into their Word document with ease! Post a comment if you have a question. Enjoy!

You can also check out a previous post on how to convert PDF to Word.

[tags]insert pdf into word, convert pdf to word, convert pdf to jpg, insert pdf document into word[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

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Comments

27 Responses to “How to insert a PDF file into a Word document”

  1. John Chandler said on : April 28th, 2008 at 7:59 am

    You creat a PDF file. Then you want to set a link to where a person can double click over a email address and automatically for example Outlook would open a new email already addressed to the same email address as documented in you PDF file. Can this be done?


  2. RacerX said on : May 6th, 2008 at 5:02 am

    create a hyperlink in the format:

    mailto:[&subject=][&body=][&cc=][&bcc=]

    So a link with a prefilled in address would look like:

    mailto:foo@foo.com


  3. Learn Word said on : September 5th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

    Thanks for the tip on how to insert PDF file into Microsoft Word!


  4. Anthony said on : December 5th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

    Thank you for the information. However does not work very well for street maps (fuzzy, illegible).


  5. Naidu said on : March 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 am

    Hi,

    I am undertaking a small project. Please let me know the tips which i have to take before handling a pdf to word format conversion project.

    Thank you
    Naidu.


  6. jennywren said on : June 18th, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    you can also just open your pdf in photoshop, save it as a jpg, then place it into your word doc


  7. Matt said on : September 3rd, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    Yeah, no need to do this.
    There is a better way, just follow this link below. You don’t have to download anything. (So long as you have Adobe Reader)

    http://digital-vector-maps.com/tutorial-import-pdf-into-powerpoint.aspx

    If you don’t have the ‘SnapShot Tool’ on your Tool Bar(Beside the Print and Zoom icons), then look in the ‘Tools’ tab under ‘Select and Zoom.’


  8. Bobbi said on : November 14th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    Thanks for sharing the zamzar link – very helpful.


  9. Marija said on : November 25th, 2009 at 6:39 am

    Hi there,

    I’ve got a little problem; Now I’m using new machine, and when I instert pictures from pdf file into word document i have to format the picture and layout in “tight” or “in front of text” to be able to move it in word page. Before, on the old machine, this process was automatic.

    Any idea? Help??
    Thanx a lot


  10. Ana Maria said on : December 7th, 2009 at 7:08 am

    Hi, I am 65 years old and don’t know much knowledge about computers! My only son who knew of computers passed away and I am trying to learn on my own. This article was very helpful for converting copying my PDF files into Word. I cannot thank you enough!


  11. Max said on : December 8th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    Appending Matt’s comment above, an alternative to using the snapshot tool:

    You can simply set the zoom in your PDF viewer to show a full single page and “Print Screen” then paste into word.

    The snapshot tool does tend to give you better resolution, however.


  12. Erik said on : December 17th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Use Open Office, it’s much easier and supports MS Office documents also!


  13. Tracy2 said on : February 8th, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    Matt,

    I feel as if you handled me a miracle when you told me about this. That is one of the easiest things I have ever done a computer and it brilliantly allowed me to copy and paste my pdf into my word document. A millions thanks!


  14. David said on : February 10th, 2010 at 9:22 am

    Am I missing something. If you place the pdf on the desktop and open the word document, it can be dragged into the document…


  15. Lisa said on : February 17th, 2010 at 6:34 pm

    yes you can drag it to your document but if it’s two pages only the first page is copied. You can also just do insert/object/create from fileand click on your pdf but once again only the first page copies??


  16. Norma said on : March 22nd, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    I’ve tried inserting the PDF into the Word doc, but only one page shows. How can I insert more than one without splitting the PDF?


  17. vivyno88 said on : March 28th, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    Thanks for the tip on how to insert PDF file into Microsoft Word!I always need to convert pdf to word,it will help me a lot.And i also fidn Advanced PDF to Word very good,because it is very good in preserving the formatting. It also allow us to convert a lot files at the same time.


  18. Ashley said on : April 11th, 2010 at 1:06 am

    How do I get ALL pages of my PDF into word? It only works with the first page!


  19. Gyles Chapman said on : May 5th, 2010 at 8:27 am

    Easiest way by far is open your PDF with Acrobat Pro (you must have this) and convert to JPEGs. Each page is a separate JPEG where you saved it.Ensure the JPEGs are in the correct page number order, select all and then move the curser to the top one (keeping all selected) and slide them (move) to the top of the Word page you want to copy them to. Job is done. (Note: If you sleect them all and slde the curser from say the 10th JPEG down no 10 to the end followed by 1-10 will be inserted.) Your original word header and footers are maintained.


  20. Michael said on : May 12th, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    Here’s a trick for getting all pages. I can’t explain why it works, but it does. I’m using Adobe Reader to view the PDF. Copy your first page using Edit>Copy File to Clipboard. In Word, use Paste Special and select Picture (Windows Metafile or Enhanced Metafile), or Bitmap (not Acrobat Document Object or Formatted Text). Here comes the trick…copy a space from somewhere. This serves to clear the Clipboard which seems to be important. Back in Reader, scroll down so that you are on the second page and the 2/2 window shows that you are on the second page. Repeat the Edit>Copy File to Clipboard process.


  21. Fleur said on : May 23rd, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Michael,

    Thanks so much for your tip. It worked perfectly for me. I needed to add 2 page PDF into my Word document, and couldn’t do it until I found your tip. Cheers.


  22. Magaly said on : June 13th, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    Gyles,

    Thanks so much. The way you explained works very well and is super simple!


  23. Annie said on : August 30th, 2010 at 1:36 am

    Here is the really easiest way: simply re-save the pdf in rtf. or doc. Format > open the rtf/doc > select all > copy and paste into the location you need in your target word file.

    If you have a full Acrobat program it works like a treat. The output rtf or doc can be text or image, depending on the original pdf feature.


  24. kk said on : September 6th, 2010 at 4:36 am

    Anyone know if it is possible to drag an open pdf file into an outlook email message for attachment in one step?

    eg if I need to attach a pdf file, I currently need to save the file, close it and then either locate the file and drag into my email or attach the pdf from Outlook.

    thanks

    Karl


  25. jc said on : September 10th, 2010 at 2:57 am

    I can not believe that this is not possible in a PC (windows any versions) it is a limitation of the operating system.

    in Mac OS X (apple) this is as simple as “inserting” an image, you can even select which page, and when placed in word it retains its vector clarity it is still a pure PDF file inside word will print perfectly…

    here is the kicker if you share this document with a windows user the perfect pdf in a mac shows like the worst JPG in a PC…

    go figure… because in PowerPoint it is possible to place PDF files in both platforms…

    c’mon Microsoft get you product manager in the same building, may be just maybe it will solve the problem.


  26. Rita said on : July 22nd, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    I have copied and pasted an entire book from PDF into Word because the PDF document is protected and I can’t convert it. I looks horrible and now I have to fix that, but don’t know of a quick way to do it (is over 200 pages!!!). This is an example of what the Word document looks like:

    Arthur came over today and was hungry,
    but lucky
    him
    that my daugher had
    made
    some soup.

    As you can see, in order for me to put this together I have to manually tie each line together. Is there a way in Word that I can fix this quickly in the entire document? Thank you for your help!


  27. A said on : August 25th, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    Could you tell me step by step how to take an adobe pdf template and put it into microsoft word? I am very computer illiterate…so I would need a very simple explanation. Thanks!


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