The PDF file format has been around for a long time and continues to expand as the prefered type of file format to store information in. While browsing the web, users come across downloadable files and reports which are offered in PDF format, indicating at the high level of portability that comes with the format. Continuous use of PDF file can lead to file corruption, making the file inaccessible.
In an organisation where a massive amount of information is exchanged among employees on a daily basis is generally done via PDF files, which are easy to create and transfer and they also work across multiple computer platform, making them easily accessible. Today, almost every mobile devices comes with native support for PDF documents, allowing users to access PDF files from any mobile or laptop device, making it the file format of choice. Extensive use of a particular PDF file or files leads to file corruption, meaning, some components of the file get damaged, making it in accessible. The corrupt PDF then becomes useless to the users and the information stored in the PDF file cannot be retrieved. One of the recommended ways of dealing with such kind of situation is converting the damaged PDF into a different, readable format, like Microsoft Word format, ‘.doc’. Traditionally, a .pdf file extension is unrecognisable to Microsoft Word. What users need to do is convert the PDF document in a file extension which runs on Word. Simply renaming the PDF file with the suitable extension will not do, it will render the same results when users try opening the PDF file on Word. Therefore, users will have to convert it and try to retain the layout of the original PDF document on Word format. The conversion can be done using any good converter application, but users might not be able to retain the original format of the document. However, users can also use the Adobe Acrobat Reader program to convert the damaged PDF document. First open the document in question and click on the File tab and select ‘Save As’. Now, when the saving window opens, rename the file and change the file format to Microsoft Word .doc. Now once the extension of the corrupt PDF file is changed to DOC, users then need to click on the ‘Settings’ button and select ‘Retain Page Layout’ option. Now, the window contains several other options that users can select according to their preference. Click on the ‘OK’ tab and then click on the ‘Save’ option. Now, the file saving process might take sometime depending on the size of the document and the speed of the computer. After the conversion and the saving process is complete, users can then open the document in Microsoft Word. However, they would notice that the layout of the document is different to the original file. In order to change it back to normal, users would have to turn on all the formatting marks of the document. This can be done by accessing the ‘Office’ option and selecting the ‘Word’ option and entering the display settings. Users would need to make sure that they check the ‘Show all formatting marks’ options. After that, users would need to select all the options under the ‘Show document content’ except the one that says ‘Show pictures placeholders’ from the Advanced settings option. This brings the layout back to normal. However, in order to repair corrupt PDF files, users can also use the DataNumen PDF Repair software.
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