How to Insert a PDF File into a Word Document

Since 1983, when it was first developed, Microsoft Word has evolved. Not just the number of versions, but how much you can do with it. Of course, there are several free text editors out there that are great alternatives to Word, but it’s still the most popular of them all.

Word offers many features to help you present a wide variety of different documents, and some of them can be confusing if you’re not familiar with them. One is the Insert PDF to Word tool, which lets you insert a PDF file into a Word document in its entirety, or attach it as a clickable object.

There are several different ways to import a PDF to Word, and we’ll show you a few so you can choose the one that works best for your situation.

Note. The steps below apply to Word 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and Word for Office 365. Also, be sure to watch our short YouTube video below if you’d rather watch than read. Also subscribe to our channel!

Use the Insert Object tool.
Insert PDF as static image.
Use PDF Converter to embed PDF in Word as an image.
Insert text from PDF file into Word.
Insert PDF into Word as a linked object.
Copy PDF file to Word.
Use the full version of Adobe.
Insert PDF into Word using Mac.
Use Google Docs.

Methods for Inserting PDF into Word

Use the “Insert Object” tool.

Insert the PDF as a still image.

Use this PDF converter to insert PDF to Word as an image.

Insert text from PDF into Word.

Insert PDF into Word as a linked object.

Copy the PDF to Word

Use the full version of Adobe.

Insert a PDF into Word using a Mac.

Use Google Docs.

Use the Insert Object tool

You can embed your PDF into a Word document by embedding it as an object. Thus, the first page of the PDF appears in the document and becomes part of it after insertion.

If you make any changes to the PDF, they will not be reflected in the Word document because the PDF is no longer associated with the original file. You can reposition, resize, recolor or attach a border, and control the flow of text around an object.

Open Word and place the cursor where you want to insert the PDF as an object.
Click the “Insert” tab on the menu bar.

In the Text group, click Object.

In the Object dialog box, click the Create From File tab.

Click Browse to locate the PDF file you want to insert.

Click OK to insert the PDF into the Word document. You will see the PDF appears on the selected page.

Note. You cannot embed a password-protected PDF file in Word. If you try, Word will tell you that the file is protected and you need to remove the password protection before embedding the file.

Insert PDF as a static image

With this method, you can convert a PDF document to a static image and then paste it into a Word document. The difference is that it is not editable and any changes made to the original PDF will not be reflected in the Word document afterwards.

You will need a tool that can convert your PDF to JPG format. However, if it is a single page, you can grab its contents using the built-in Windows Snipping tool or an alternative like SnagIt, and then save as a JPG file in a location that you can easily find and paste in Word.

Open Word and place the cursor where you want to insert the image.
Click the Insert tab on the menu bar.
Click Image to open the Insert Image window. dialog window.

Find the last JPG file in which it was saved, and click Insert to insert the image into the Word document.

This is best for older versions of Word that may not have an Insert PDF feature.

Use PDF Converter to Insert PDF into Word as Image

There are several good and free online PDF converters that you can use to convert your file to images and paste them into your Word document. Choose the one that supports your preferred image file format, such as JPG or PNG. We’ll use SmallPDF for this, but you can choose the one you like.

Open the online PDF converter and select PDF to JPG.

Click Choose File to download the PDF file from your current location.

The program will convert your file to images. When done, select Extract Single Images or Convert Whole Pages (in this case, I chose the latter), and then click Select.

Your file will be converted to JPG format and ready for upload. Click the Download File (ZIP) folder (you can also download each image individually, but for a multi-page PDF file this can be tedious and time consuming).

Go to the Downloads section on your computer. Right-click the file you just downloaded and choose Extract All.

Then go to your Word document and click the Insert tab on the menu bar.
Select Image to open the Insert Image dialog box, and then browse for the JPG files extracted from the ZIP archive. the folder you downloaded.

Click Insert to insert the image (s) into your Word document. Edit them to match the flow of your text.

Insert text from PDF into Word

You can also import some of the text from a PDF file using the Insert Object tool and drag it into the Word document. However, this will only insert text without the original formatting or graphics (if any) from the PDF file, so it will not look exactly the same.

Open Word and position the cursor where you want to place the text.
Click the Insert tab on the menu bar.
In the Text group, click the down arrow next to Object.
Select text from file.

In the Insert File dialog box, navigate to the PDF file from which you want to insert text, and click Insert.

After converting the PDF to text, it appears in the Word document.

You can also open the PDF file in Word 2013 or 2016, which converts it to editable text, which you can then copy and paste into your Word document.

PDF Reflow feature in Word 2013 and 2016 extracts content from PDF and redirects it to a .docx file while preserving layout information as much as possible. However, for a better conversion, you can open the PDF in Acrobat and export it to a Word document.

Insert PDF into Word as linked

The linked object in this case means that the full PDF will be inserted, but it will only appear as the first page of the document and will be linked to the original file.

You can choose to display it as an icon instead of previewing the file. Either way, you can open the file by selecting the icon or preview. Any changes you make to the original PDF will be reflected in the Word document.

Open Word and place your cursor where you want to insert the PDF file as a linked object.
Click the Insert tab on the menu bar.
In the Text group, click Object.
Select the Create From File tab in the Object dialog box.
Click Browse and select the PDF you want to insert.
Click File Link to insert the shortcut.

Click Render As Icon if you want the file to be inserted as an icon rather than as a preview (first page). You can also display it with a different icon by clicking Change Icon> Browse to select an icon, and then press OK or Enter.

Click OK to add the PDF shortcut (icon or preview) to your Word document.

Copy the PDF to Word

This is an easier way to insert text from a PDF file into a Word document. However, it doesn’t copy graphics or text formatting from the original file, so they won’t look the same.

We are going to describe the steps to take if you are using Adobe Acrobat Reader, but you can also use the default PDF reader application, although the steps may vary slightly.

Open your PDF file.
Right-click anywhere in the document and choose Select Tool.

Select the text you want to copy, right-click the selection and choose Copy.
Open Word and paste the text wherever you want in your document.

You can convert the PDF to Word using Adobe Acrobat DC if you want to put its content in a separate Word document instead of pasting the PDF in Word.

Use the full version of Adobe

You can import the PDF to Word and skip all the other steps mentioned above if you have the full version of Adobe installed. The program has a built-in converter that you can use to import a PDF file and convert it to Word.

The converted document has higher quality and better formatting than the regular PDF to Word conversion from Word 2013 and 2016.

Open Adobe Acrobat and click Export PDF.

Choose the format you want to convert the file to, in this case Word, and click Export.

Paste the converted file into a Word document by clicking Insert> Object> New From File> Browse, and locate the Word document converted from Acrobat.
If you prefer to insert the file as an image, you can open it in Adobe Acrobat, click Save As or Save As Other, and select your preferred image format (JPG, PNG, TIFF, etc.) ). Acrobat converts each page into an image file that you can insert into your Word document.

This method is also more secure for your documents compared to using an online PDF converter, especially if they are confidential in nature. The downside to this method is the cost of Adobe Acrobat, which may not be suitable for all users.

Insert PDF into Word with Mac

If you’re using a Mac, the steps for inserting a PDF file into Word are relatively similar, but with a few minor differences.

Open a Word document in the Mac version of Office.
Click Insert and select Object.
In the dialog box that opens, click From File and select the PDF file.

Click Open to paste the file into Word.

Mac allows you to preview and select the pages from the PDF file that you want to insert into the Word document, Windows only inserts the first page of the PDF file.
To insert a PDF file. in Word on a Mac, you don’t have to choose New From File> Browse like you do in Windows; just click Insert Object> From File.
If you only want text from a PDF, Mac has a built-in preview tool to help you with that. Open the PDF file in preview mode, click the Type tool, select the text, and then copy and paste it in Word.

Differences Between Windows and Mac When you insert a PDF into Word

The Mac system allows you to preview and choose which pages of the PDF you want to insert into the Word document, Windows inserts the first page of the PDF .

To insert a PDF file into Word using Mac, you don’t have to select Create from File> Browse as you want it in Windows; Just click Insert Object> From File

If you only need text from a PDF, the Mac has a built-in preview tool to help with that. Open the PDF file in the preview, click on the Text tool, select your text, then copy and paste it into Word.

Using Google Docs

You can also embed the PDF in Word using Google Docs.

Open Google Docs and click New> File Upload, then click the PDF file.

Once downloaded to disk, right-click the PDF file and choose Open With> Google Docs.

The PDF is now embedded in Google Docs. You can copy and paste the Word document you want to combine with it in Docs, edit it, and then download it as a Microsoft Word file. Click File> Download> Microsoft Word.

The downside to this method is that it does not apply the same formatting as the original PDF file. In addition, document insertion is a little slow, has file size limitations, and you need to merge the Word document after opening the PDF in Docs.

Can I use Word Online to insert a PDF into a Word document?

You cannot insert a PDF file into Word Online. However, you can edit the PDF in Word Online, update its content, or copy from the PDF and paste it into the Word document offline.

Note. When you open a PDF in Word Online, it will be converted to a Word document without some of the original formatting. For example, line and page breaks can appear in different places. This conversion works best for PDF files that contain mostly text.

We hope you now know how to insert a PDF file into a Word document. You can try any of these methods and see which one works best for your situation.

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