PDFs and Microsoft Office file formats (PPT, Excel, Word) are two common formats on a daily basis. The pros and cons of these formats can be simply concluded: the content in files will be the same even when they are converted to PDF, and it is hard to apply changes to PDFs; while to MS Office formats, it is very easy to edit but the content or the layout can not be ensured the same. To PDF documents, the biggest issue is also its main strength-keeping the original content intact. Therefore, this may give rise to the strong conversion needs from PDFs to MS Office formats. Read the article below to dig into three reasons behind conversion. üßöä
Editing Needs:
Before we dive in, let’s go back to where we start. Why do we go digitization? Obviously, it is all for enhancing working efficiency and productivity. As a result, the most significant reason for conversion is to satisfy fundamental editing needs. In spite of blooming document management industry, applying changes to PDF documents is still a pain in the neck since PDF is a fixed form. When confronted with such issues, it is optional for users to convert PDFs into other easily editable Microsoft Office formats, such as Word. It is widely recognized that Microsoft Word is an open document format which has no hindrance to make changes to the content. Meanwhile, Word allows users to directly edit the text within the document, and this convenience undeniably helps when users badly need to rewrite the content or to change the layout. Besides that, psychologically, people may feel easy to deal with Word-related issues rather than PDF’s, and this may be attributed to Word’s editability.
Inaccessible PDF Reader:
Another reason to convert PDFs into MS office formats should be ascribed to the inaccessibility of a PDF reader. Straightforwardly, users have to pay the price for available PDF readers. Even though Adobe Acrobat Reader is free to download and provides free trial, its large memory size may take you an hour or more before installing. For other PDF programs, free trial is also provided but the duration depends. Sometimes, users have no clue whether to pay for a brand new tool. Uncertainty becomes an obstruction in the way.
However, reading PDF documents necessarily requires PDF tools, which differs from Microsoft Word, a file format can be easily read and edited at any time. For most desktops, Microsoft Office has been built in since its first activation. Therefore, relatively speaking, when it comes to user friendliness, Word may be superior to PDF. That is to say, converting files from PDFs to Word is conducive to word processing, and users won’t worry about purchasing something useless.
Screen Readers:
For visually impaired or low-vision users, PDF is not a friendly format as it does not provide screen-reading tools of which they largely rely on. But as to Word documents, this is not a question. One can read Word documents easily without reservations. The reason behind is that Microsoft Word has put a premium on providing excellent service for different groups and tested its Office products with many screen readers like Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA. Besides this, Office products have integrated several accessibility features within which can be easily ignored. Only if other screen readers follow common accessibility standards, Office products can be compatible and work well with them. Notably, this advantage is what PDF lacks. In the current market, it is rare to see a PDF tool equipped with screen readers. In conclusion, for people who need assistants to read and edit documents and information on computers, Microsoft Office products is of higher priority. And that is a humane explanation we should convert PDFs to other formats.
