A key issue for both PDF users and Word users alike is the ability to edit. While the PDF user is concerned with preventing it, a Word user demands it. Whether it’s concern for saving the content of a file or for accessing it, Investintech.com tries to assist both.
However, sometimes we get questions and issues that can’t be resolved, which actually make for a good opportunity to clarify a few things about the PDF format itself. For instance, one Able2Extract-PDF-Word user sent in a question that reads:
When a PDF is converted back into a MS Word Document, can the changes that were made to the Word Document (before it was converted to a PDF initially) be seen?
In other words, if you’re not the creator of either the source document or the PDF document itself, could you determine who, when and what changes were made during the original editing of the Word Document?
Unfortunately, no. The PDF preserves only the look-and-feel of Word Documents. It doesn’t preserve anything else. There is no hidden Word data in the PDF file, no information of recorded changes. Hence, there is nothing for a PDF converter to recover. The information which you don’t see on the paper area is lost during PDF creation.
In fact, when you create a PDF file, the actual paragraphs and words you do see aren’t preserved either. All a PDF does is preserve the look and position of each letter individually (that’s why the conversion for PDF back to Word is complicated—our application has to “figure out” which letters combine to make certain words and other elements).
If you think about it, the PDF really is a form of “electronic paper”. That is, it generates the same effect as a printed page held in your hand—just by looking at it, you can’t figure out how many edits or changes were made to it to get it to that final version you hold in your hand. What gets lost in translation, stays lost.
