What should I do if a lot of garbled text appears after converting a PDF to Word?
If you convert a PDF file into a Word document only to find strange symbols, corrupted characters, or nonsensical text, it is usually because the original PDF uses embedded fonts, contains scanned pages, employs special character encoding, or features a layout that exceeds the capabilities of your conversion tool.
Before attempting to reconvert the entire document, consider the following solutions.
Check if the text in the PDF can be selected
Open the original PDF file and try to select a sentence with your mouse.
- If you can select individual words, the PDF contains actual text; the issue likely stems from font mapping or conversion compatibility.
- If you can only select an entire page as an image, the document is likely a scan. In this case, you must first use an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool to identify the text before exporting it as a Word document.
For scanned documents, OCR is generally the best solution—especially when the original PDF consists of printed text rather than digitally generated text.
Try a different PDF-to-Word conversion tool
Not all conversion tools handle fonts and character encoding in the same way. If your output contains random symbols or unrecognizable characters, try using a different converter before spending time fixing the document manually.
For documents with complex layouts, tables, or multiple languages, desktop-based PDF processing software often yields better results than simple online conversion tools.
Address font and character issues
If only certain words or paragraphs appear garbled, the problem may be related to the fonts used in the original PDF.
Try opening the file in a different PDF reader before performing the conversion. If the source document uses uncommon fonts, ask the sender for the original Word file or a new PDF version with the fonts embedded.
Changing the font within Word might improve how the text looks, but it cannot fix text corruption caused by decoding errors during the conversion process.
Use OCR for scanned PDFs
If the document is a scan, choose a conversion tool that explicitly supports OCR. Be sure to select the correct language for recognition before processing the file. This is particularly important for languages like Chinese and Japanese—if the language is misidentified, the resulting text can be severely garbled or inaccurate.
Once the conversion is complete, carefully verify all proper names, dates, numbers, and the contents of any tables. Even if a document appears clear and legible, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processes can still produce errors.
What if the text still cannot be recognized?
Try converting just one or two pages. If a specific page consistently results in garbled text across different tools, the text mapping within the source PDF may be corrupted or encoded improperly.
If you have access to the original source document, regenerating the PDF is generally more reliable than repeatedly attempting to convert a problematic copy.
A quick tip: avoid spending too much time manually correcting garbled text before trying other conversion tools or OCR software. The best approach depends on whether the original PDF contains editable text or consists solely of scanned images.