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PDF vs DOCX
DOCX to write, PDF to send — one is the document, the other is a picture of it.
Choose PDF when
Anything final — a contract, an invoice, a CV, a report. A PDF looks the same everywhere and cannot be edited by accident.
Choose DOCX when
Anything still being written or meant to be edited by somebody else. A PDF is a picture of a document; a DOCX is the document.
The thing that catches people out
Converting a PDF back to DOCX recovers text, not layout. Anything laid out with care comes back approximately, and the more designed it was the worse the approximation.
Side by side
| DOCX | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Portable Document Format | Word Document |
| Extension | .docx | |
| Media type | application/pdf | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Compression | Either, depending on the setting | Uncompressed |
| This site can write it | Yes | Yes |
Decided? Convert it here
Where these figures come from
The claims this page makes about PDF and DOCX are checkable, and these are the documents that settle them.