Convert PDF to Word DOCX or DOC with Python

Alice Yang
2 min readAug 22, 2023

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Convert PDF to Word in Python
Convert PDF to Word in Python

PDF files are widely used for digital document distribution due to their ability to preserve formatting across different platforms. However, PDFs are typically read-only files and cannot be easily edited like Word documents. Converting PDF files to Word documents provides a convenient way to edit, modify, or reuse the content. In this article, we will explore how to programmatically convert PDF files to Word DOCX or DOC formats using the Python programming language.

Python Library for PDF to Word Conversion

To convert PDF files to Word format, we can use the Spire.PDF for Python library.

Spire.PDF for Python is a feature-rich and user-friendly library that enables creating, reading, editing, and converting PDF files within Python applications. With this library, you can perform a wide range of manipulations on PDFs, including adding text/images, extracting text/images, adding digital signatures, adding/deleting pages, merging or splitting PDFs, creating tables, adding text/image watermarks, inserting fillable forms and many more. In addition, you are also able to convert PDF files to various file formats, such as Word, Excel, images, HTML, SVG, XPS, OFD, PCL, and PostScript.

The installation of Spire.PDF for Python is a breeze. Simply execute the following commands in your project’s terminal:

pip install spire.pdf
pip install plum-dispatch==1.7.4

Convert PDF to Word DOCX in Python

The process of converting a PDF file to Word DOCX format is straightforward and can be achieved with just a few lines of code. Here’s a simple example that demonstrates how to convert a PDF file to Word DOCX format using Python and the Spire.PDF for Python library:

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Create a PdfDocument object
pdf = PdfDocument()
# Load a PDF file
pdf.LoadFromFile("Sample.pdf")

# Convert the PDF file to a Word DOCX file
pdf.SaveToFile("PdfToDocx.docx", FileFormat.DOCX)
# Close the PdfDocument object
pdf.Close()

Convert PDF to Word DOC in Python

Similarly, if you prefer the older Word DOC format, you can easily adapt the previous example to convert a PDF file to Word DOC format using Python and the Spire.PDF for Python library:

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Create a PdfDocument object
pdf = PdfDocument()
# Load a PDF file
pdf.LoadFromFile("Sample.pdf")

# Convert the PDF file to a Word DOC file
pdf.SaveToFile("PdfToDoc.doc", FileFormat.DOC)
# Close the PdfDocument object
pdf.Close()

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how to convert PDF files to Word DOCX and DOC formats using Python. We hope you can find it helpful.

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Alice Yang

Skilled senior software developers with five years of experience in all phases of software development life cycle using .NET, Java and C++ languages.