Ever had a PDF document that you wish you could access in Microsoft Word or Excel? Or a non-PDF document you’d like to quickly convert into a PDF? Both are easily solved with the web-based Docs.Zone software toolkit…
I’ve grown to become quite a fan of PDF (portable document format), particularly because I can digitally sign these documents and fax them back to people and it’s indistinguishable from me having printed it, signed it, scanned it and emailed the scan or fed the signed page into a fax machine. A fax machine. So 80s!
There are a lot of other reasons you might interact with PDF documents too, and when I have documents I want others to review, I’m also a fan of sending them PDF docs rather than an easily editable spreadsheet, document or file.
In both cases, Docs.zone turns out to be a simple, elegant web-based solution worth exploring, and 10x so if you’re working on a Windows system because while many Mac apps have PDF as a native output format (for example, through the printer driver) too many PC programs are clueless about exporting or saving documents in PDF.
To test out the Docs.zone subscription service, I tried a conversion in each direction, one from a Word document to a PDF, and then converting a complex PDF into a Word file for subsequent editing if I so desire.
To get started, simply hop over to docs.zone (interesting domain name, isn’t it?)
As you can see, the toolkit includes document to PDF conversion, combining multiple files to a single PDF, Web (HTML) pages to PDF documents, and PDF to Word, Excel and images conversion. With no need to download or install any software at all.
I’m going to convert a letter I wrote a few years back to the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles by clicking on “Select files…”
Easy enough to pick out a favorite file or one that you’re busy working with, no worries about what apps you have installed, how to do those tricky save-as sequences, exporting to PDF format, etc. I select the file and click “Open”.
Ready to go! A click on “Start” and it’s just a matter of a few seconds to upload and convert this one-page letter:
Just about done…
and.. done!
Actually it was all super fast, well under 15 seconds total.
Now it shows up in your “inbox”, along with any other files you’ve converted to or from PDF:
A click on the “Download” button and the new PDF is ready to view or share.
here’s the result (blurred for privacy):
I know, I know, you can’t read it. But you can still see that the formatting I used in Word has been retained perfectly and this PDF is one very much ready to send along to a colleague or client.
Now let’s flip the process and convert an existing PDF document into a Microsoft Word file so that we can fix a few things we noticed!
Same basic interface, easy enough. “Select files…” and pick the PDF doc.
Again, it zips along, even with this 30-odd page PDF document and soon enough there’s a download link:
A click on “Download” and it’s immediately obvious that docs.zone has done a splendid job of converting a complex, highly formatted PDF document into a Microsoft Word document (“.doc”) that’s ready to edit and tweak, as shown when I open it up in Microsoft Word:
Nice job. Fast, easy, no software to install. What’s not to like about this solution?
Docs.zone is a subscription-based service, so be aware that it’s $9.99 for a month of unlimited conversions or $59.99 if you’re hard core and need a year’s subscription (which, in case you’re lazy, works out to just a smidge under $5/mo). There are other solutions, but I’m always so loathe to install utility software on my PC or Mac system that it’s worth the modest cost to have this be so easy to work with and online.
Check it out: docs.zone PDF conversion toolkit.
Disclaimer: Docs.zone did supply me with a free account to test and evaluate the software.