Need to convert a file?

[Guest]

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[AuditorBob]

Here's a nifty little program.  Ever wish you could convert Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, WordPerfect, HTML, AutoCAD DWG, PostScript, and other document types to PDF, PostScript, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PCX, BMP?  Well, now you can!

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Neevia.com

will allow you to convert up to 10 documents a day for free.  It will convert the file of your choice within the browser, or email the file to you after completion.

[The valetudinarian]

Another good one is You must login to view links.
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Zamzar

.  Also, for a review of Zamzar and other similar services, see You must login to view links.
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Gizmo Richards' Tech Support Alert

[AuditorBob]

Good information, thank you Val 

I have not used Zamzar before.  Just a brief initial comparison shows that it converts music and video files as well; but only allows 5 free conversions per day, and does not offer conversion within your browser (a minor inconvenience).  I'll give it a try next time I need to convert something and then review it here.

[AuditorBob]

Here's another conversion service called You must login to view links.
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youconvertit

.  It doesn't convert your files online, they send the file to your email address.  But it does have a plethora of audio, image, document, video and archive file types it will convert.  Their website says you can "Convert any media file format (Documents, Images, Audio, Video & Archives) without buying or installing anything on your PC."  Check the Supported Formats link at the bottom of the page for a complete list of formats you can convert to & from.  It allows you to convert up to 5 files at a time, and it also has an online conversion tool to convert units of measure (area, electricity, force, etc. - even currency).

I tried converting a PDF file to BMP & JPEG.  While the service was very fast (I received an email within a minute or so), it failed to convert my file after 5 attempts even though their list says it can convert PDF to both these image formats.  Perhaps it was because my file was 11x17, so maybe you'll have better luck.

Zamzaar will only covert PDF to other document formats, so I used Neevia which worked perfectly, and converted it in my browser in less than 30 seconds.  I discovered that it won't convert files over 1MB (though maybe the pay version will).

[auditor1]

I tried converting a 3MB PDF file to JPEG on Neevia, but it won't convert files larger than 1MB.  I located another service called You must login to view links.
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PDF converter

which converted my 3MB PDF file to JPEG just fine.  It won't convert within your browser, but that was a minor inconvenience as I received it as a zip file in my email in about a minute.  It cautions not to send large files as attachments in order to ensure delivery.

[beancounter]

I found some instructions for converting a PDF file to a Word document using Adobe Acrobat 7 (both Standard and Professional):

In the PDF file you want to convert, select Save As from the File menu.  In the Save As dialog box, select Microsoft Word Document from the Format (Mac) or Type (Windows) pop-up menu.  Simply click the Save button.  The conversion may not be perfect, depending on factors such as the complexity of the layout, and whether you have the document's fonts on your system, etc.

To change the setting Acrobat uses to convert content to Word's format, open Preferences from the Edit menu and choose Convert From PDF in the left side of the dialog box, and Microsoft Word Document from the Converting From PDF list in the center (or, click the Settings button in the Save As dialog box).

[AuditorBob]

Okay - this one really impressed me!  It's called You must login to view links.
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Cometdocs

.

It's a free online file converter offering a great variety of conversions.  Sign-up is fast & free (just like AuditBible!).  I desperately needed to convert a spreadsheet that had been saved as a PDF file which contained over 500 rows of data.  Within 30 seconds, I had a perfectly converted Excel spreadsheet.

Next time I need to convert a file, I will definitely try here first 

[auditor1]

Cometdocs is good, especially for converting .pdf to Excel.  However, when I tried to convert a .tif file into a .pdf, it only converted the first page out of 8 pages.  I converted it using You must login to view links.
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Neevia

and it worked perfectly.

[AuditorBob]

I tried converting a PDF to Excel using You must login to view links.
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PDF to Excel online

but it took almost 20 minutes to email me a conversion failure notice.  I converted the same PDF file using You must login to view links.
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CometDocs

and received a link via email to my converted Excel file within 2 minutes, and with only one minor flaw (an extra space in a one of the words).

[AuditorLisa]

Our company went paperless last June.  While we are love the joy of being paperless, we had a bit of a learning curve on handling various types of images and documents.  I have used Cometdocs for a wide variety of convertions and have found that it works really well. 

[beancounter]

Just had a difficult one...I tried to convert a check register (a 2-page PDF) to Excel using Zamzar.  The converted Excel file had two sheets - both were blank.

Then I tried YouConvertIt, but that won't convert PDF files. 

I tried FreePDFConverter - the converted file contained 25 sheets, with portions of the orignal document on each sheet, and the data fields didn't match.

Finally I used Cometdocs, and it worked as perfectly as can be expected...some of the data fields didn't match, but they were easily fixed manually.

[beancounter]

I tried converting a 3MB PDF file to JPEG on Neevia, but it won't convert files larger than 1MB.  I located another service called You must login to view links.
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PDF converter

which converted my 3MB PDF file to JPEG just fine.  It won't convert within your browser, but that was a minor inconvenience as I received it as a zip file in my email in about a minute.  It cautions not to send large files as attachments in order to ensure delivery.

I tried converting a 23-page PDF using PDF Converter and received an email in less than a minute stating, "Error: PDF conversion error. No tables detected in PDF file."  I used You must login to view links.
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CometDocs

and received the converted file within a minute.  It only needed a few formating touch-ups.

[beancounter]

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Here's

one I found, which converted a document that had been scanned into a PDF file, and it coverted it to Word so that I could edit it.  It converts one page at a time instantly on screen.  Of course, any formatting is lost but at least you've got the text.