Dear Computer Lady,

How can I convert a PDF file along with the images to a Office WORD file in order to be able to make changes to the document.

Thanks so much for your help, David.

Dear David,

The short answer is that you can’t open  a PDF file in Word, but there are a lot of programs on the internet that offer to convert PDF files to Word format for you. I went to www.google.com and searched for, “PDF to Word converter” and found quite a few small software programs that claim to do this conversion for you.

Since I don’t have experience with many of these programs, I am going to tell you about the two programs that I am familiar with.

The first option, and the one that has been around the longest is to purchase Adobe Acrobat and use it to edit and create PDF files.  Adobe is the company that created the PDF file format and made the free reader program available for everyone to download, install and use. It was a brilliant marketing plan because they made it possible for anyone to be able to read documents created in their program, and companies could create documents that they knew their customers could read.

Unfortunately, the cost for Adobe Acrobat (the program that creates PDF files) is close to $500, and while this is affordable for large companies, it is not affordable for the rest of us.

The second option is a desktop publishing program that I have been using for quite a few years called PagePlus. This program has had the ability to create PDF documents, and the most recent version also has the ability to open and edit existing PDF documents. I had already purchased and been using PagePlus on my computer, so it was not an expense for me, but since the whole program is under $100, and allows you to create many kinds of documents, it is much more affordable than the first option.

When you first open PagePlus, one of the option is to import a PDF file, all you have to do is select the file you want to open, and click on the “Import” button.

Once you have made your changes, or if you have created your own PagePlus document from scratch, you just click on “File” in the menu bar, then click on “Publish as PDF” and you will be able to save a copy of your file in PDF format.

Elizabeth