I consistently have issues with Adobe and opening PDF files on my computer. I’m asked to upgrade to the newest version of Adobe Acrobat about once a month, or I’ll have printing issues, or the PDF will lock my whole laptop up. And in my office, I get a lot of PDF files (typically resumes - I’m not sure who thought putting those in a PDF format was a bright idea!) that need to be changed, and that requires sending them off to someone else who has the full version of Adobe, and not my free version that doesn’t allow edits. I learned tonight there is software that will perform a PDF to Word doc translation, so to speak, giving me a file I can edit in Word, instead of a PDF that I can’t edit.

Right now, those of you reading this are probably gearing up to leave a comment telling me about the “save as text” feature in Adobe Reader. Have you used it? The more complex your document is (formatting, graphics, and elements), the more useless this “save as text” option in Adobe reader is. PDF to Word doc conversion software will preserve the layout of the PDF, and elements within the text, including bulleted lists, headers, footers, and other formatting. You don’t want to convert a PDF into a Word doc and then spend half your morning reformatting the whole document!

The best part about these conversion programs to turn a PDF into a Word doc is that they’re cheap…to the tune of $30 for one, which in an organization like mine, can go a long way towards saving my sanity. They won’t solve the problems I have with Adobe, but they do solve a major headache I’ve got with PDF files, and for not much dough.

But seriously, don’t put your resume in a PDF file. I’m just saying.

This is a sponsored review.