How Do I Edit a PDF in Word?

Your word processor can do some of the job, but editing programs you purchase work best

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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Published September 23, 2025

an illustration of a pencil over a pdf file with document and gear icons in the background

AARP (Getty Images)

AARP members and readers are invited to submit pressing personal technology questions they’d like me to tackle in my Tech Guru column, including issues around devices, security, social media and how all the puzzle pieces fit together. This week, I’m addressing a reader’s question on editing a PDF file.

I downloaded and need to edit a PDF file, but I’ve run into issues trying to do so in Microsoft Word. Do I need another program to edit a PDF? What should I do? —Paula M.

Paula, Microsoft Word does let you edit a PDF, albeit imperfectly. I’ll outline the steps below.

As you’ve experienced, the process doesn’t always go smoothly, and you could end up with unsatisfying results.

Microsoft itself reminds Word users that a converted PDF might not completely correspond to an original document. Text doesn’t flow naturally, fonts and formatting may be off, and you might see funky page and line breaks.

Not designed like a word processor

A bit of background: Shorthand for “Portable Document Format,” PDFs were created by Adobe in the early 1990s as a proprietary file standard that has long since become an open standard. Many of us work with or at least come across PDFs from time to time; the documents are quite common in business and also among consumers.

But PDFs, which combine text, images and sometimes even embedded audio and video, were never designed for editing in the same manner as word processing files. Rather, they were seen as files you could print out or view as is on a computer, tablet or phone. And PDFs work across Windows, Macs, Androids and iOS.

There are several reasons why you’d want to modify PDFs. Dates change, you must sign forms or remove someone else’s signature, insert comments or otherwise freshen up the content.

Editing PDFs well often comes at a price

To edit PDFs that match the polish of the original document, you must often use specialized software applications and tools, most of which carry a fee. Free PDF editing software and online tools can suffice for basic editing. But for frequent or more extensive editing, you generally have to pay.

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Some tech reviewers consider Adobe’s Acrobat Pro to be the gold standard for PDF editing, but it is costly at $19.99 per month (billed annually). Acrobat Pro has professional-grade capabilities that may be more than the average consumer needs, including the ability to add audio, video and interactive objects to a file, or permanently redacting sensitive visual information. You can try it for free for seven days.

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A solid alternative for editing PDFs, also from Adobe, is Acrobat Standard, which is cheaper but still expensive at $12.99 per month.

Other highly regarded options include Abbyy FineReader PDF Standard ($99 per year), Foxit PDF Editor ($10.99 per month) and Nitro PDF Standard ($15 per month), but read reviews of those and others.

If you are considering a PDF editor, make sure it works on your computing platform. Some programs are only compatible with Microsoft Windows, while others are only compatible with the Mac.

Speaking of the Mac, its built-in Preview program lets you annotate a PDF to suggest changes to a person you might be collaborating with. But you can’t edit the text of a PDF in Preview.

Going free exacts limits

Pay apps might be overkill if you only occasionally have to edit or mark up a PDF document. That’s when you may want to investigate free PDF apps, or at least apps that offer free trials.

Free PDF editors include names like Canva, PDF Candy, PDF24 Creator, PDFgear and Sejda; as with pay apps, read the reviews.

For its part, Adobe Acrobat has a free online PDF editor.

But free versions have their own limitations. For starters, expect little or no technical support should you encounter any issues. What’s more, you may have to pay up for certain features or only have temporary access to tools or features before being asked to pay.

You also want to be mindful of privacy and security, especially online. Do your due diligence to make sure the editing tool you want to use is legit.

Last March, the FBI’s Denver field office reported that agents were increasingly seeing scams involving free online document converter tools that unleashed malware onto unsuspecting people’s computers.

Editing a PDF in Word

Now let me circle back to your original question, Paula: how to edit a PDF in Word. Keeping potential flaws in mind, here’s how to proceed.

Go to File | Open and scroll to find the PDF file you want to doctor.
Select the file. Word will convert the contents into a format it can display, leaving the original unchanged.
Select OK and make your edits.
Choose File | Save as and save it as a Word document or PDF. Pick the latter.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft also lets you convert a Word document into a PDF, whether you intend to edit it or not.

Bonus tip: Keep tabs on shopping deliveries in Gmail

Well ahead of the Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday shopping season, Google has begun rolling out a fresh feature to Gmail that adds a new Purchases tab that the company says will give you a streamlined view of all your recent purchase-related emails and package delivery updates in a single organized list.

Google says it will still show emails related to a package delivery expected within 24 hours at the top of your primary email inbox.

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Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn; Threads; and X, formerly known as Twitter.