{rw_text}Software reviewed in this article:

CAD-KAS PDF to Word

Version reviewed:

v3.0

Software description as per the developer:

With PDF to Word you can open a pdf file and save the content of the document as word file. The program maintains the layout, that means the position of the the text, the pictures and the vector graphics.But this is of cause no loss less conversation but the most important thing can be maintained. If you want to edit PDF files completely loss less then you should use our CAD-KAS PDF Editor.

Supported OS:

Windows 95 and higher

Price:

$39 (USD)

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{rw_good}

• Allows users to convert PDF files to RTF, TXT, and image formats (JPG, BMP, GIF, etc. supported but not PNG).
• Has a built-in, fully featured PDF editor allowing users to edit PDFs before converting them to RTF.
• Has a built-in Word to PDF converter.
• Supports encrypted PDFs.
• Supports drag + drop.

{/rw_good} –>

{rw_bad}

• Horrible output quality – extremely inaccurate conversions.
• Can only convert one PDF at a time – batch processing is not supported.
• Does not support PDF to DOC/DOCX – only supports PDF to RTF/TXT/images.
• Does not support PDF to PNG.
• Built-in Word to PDF converter does not support DOCX – only supports DOC format.
• Bugs out if user accidentally clicks on the “Edit” tab without loading a PDF.
• Crashes after exporting PDF as an image.

{/rw_bad} –>

{rw_score}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”6″}Easy to use once you understand it, but the program interface is not very intuitive so it has a learning curve.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”1″}Does not support batch processing; does not support output as DOC/DOCX; crashes after converting PDF to an image; and bugs out if user accidentally clicks on the “Edit” tab before loading a PDF. However, forget all that. Just focus on one fact: The output quality is horrible; conversions are done really badly.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”3″}I can’t see too many people finding this useful seeing as the program lacks support for batch processing and lacks support to output as DOC/DOCX. The program is aimed at a niche user group that want to edit their PDFs before converting them.
{/for}
{for=”Price” value=”5″}The program is overpriced – it is not worth $39. Granted, CAD-KAS PDF to Word provides a unique experience by allowing users to edit PDFs before converting them, but it lacks key features such as batch processing and support for DOC/DOCX output. Plus, other rival software are priced lower. This program is worth around $20-25, in my opinion, if and only if the developer fixes the output quality (right now it stinks so this program is really worth $0 as it stands).
{/for}
{for=”Final Score” value=”2″}
{/for}
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{rw_verdict}[tdown]
{/rw_verdict} –>

CAD-KAS PDF to Word is a program that allows users to convert PDF files to RTF/TXT/image formats. However, it isn’t your average PDF to Word converter; CKPtW (CAD-KAS PDF to Word) offers users a unique experience when converting PDF files by allowing users to fully edit the PDF before converting it to RTF.

This is what CKPtW’s main program window looks like:

The interface of CKPtW can use some work. It isn’t “bad” per se, but clearly the developer has little to no experience in UI design: Every thing looks like it is thrown together, and the user must determine which menu/setting/feature is applicable were. Once you get used to the program all is well; but the journey to reach that light at the end of the tunnel may be a turbulent one.

As already mentioned, CKPtW’s main job is allowing users to input PDF files, edit them, and convert them to RTF. To do so, users must…

• Load the PDF. This can be done via “File” -> “Open”, browsing the file tree from the main program window, or drag + dropping PDF files into the program window. The latter two make it so the folder of the PDFs are added to the “favorite” bar and hence forth users can one-click access the folders in question via that bar.
• (Optional) Edit the PDF. Editing the PDF involves
  • Editing the contents of the PDF:

Editing the contents is fully featured, with the users being able to remove images, add images, remove text, edit text, add text, annotate, crop the pages, add watermark, etc.:

In regards to adding images/image watermarks, these are all the support image formats:

• Add/Remove/Reorder/resize pages of the PDF:

• Add/Remove/Edit PDF “bookmarks”:

• Export the PDF. PDFs can be exported as either RTF, TXT, or as images. Exporting to RTF can be done via the “Save Word file” tab…

…and via “File” -> “Export as Word file…”. Exporting to TXT and images can only be done via “File” -> “Export as text file…” and “File” -> “Export as bitmap…” respectively. These are all the supported output image formats:

All the major image formats are present except for one major one: PNG. Apparently CKPtW does not support PDF to PNG.

Other noteworthy aspects of CKPtW:

• Encrypted PDFs are supported as input.
• CKPtW has a built-in Word to PDF converter (“File” -> “Import Word file”):

Only DOC files are supported for Word to PDF conversions. This, in my humble opinion, is extremely dumb. Where is the DOCX support? RTF? Come on!

Performance of CKPtW is where the program fails. It converts quickly, yes (and since it converts quickly resource usage is negligible during conversion although expect to use 20-40 MB of RAM while the program is running), but its output quality is horrendous. Literally horrendous. PDF to image is not bad (in fact it is perfect); rather PDF to RTF is horrible. I test-converted multiple PDFs and the output RTF documents looked nothing like the original. See for yourself:

1. Example (PDF) | Example (RTF)
2. Example (PDF) | Example (RTF)

Note: I did not create those PDFs. I found them (via a Google query) here and here.

The result is similar to the above to with just about every other PDF I tried to convert. Take note since the trial version of CKPtW only allows for the conversion of the first page of a PDF, the output RTF documents only show the first page of each respective PDF. However, the first page is enough to show the terrible conversion accuracy.

However, the dirt on CKPtW is just getting started; there is plenty wrong with the program aside from conversion performance:

• Ironically the program is named “PDF to Word” but it does not support DOC/DOCX output; the choice of RTF is obviously made so people who don’t have Microsoft Word can use the program. Still, though, DOC/DOCX should be supported in addition to RTF for those people that need to convert to DOC/DOCX – it can become very annoying to open up RTF files to resave it as a DOC/DOCX just because the developer of CKPtW decided to not support DOC/DOCX. (Support for ODF format – the Open Office format – would be nice too but the amount of Microsoft Office users far outnumbers the amount of Open Office users; so Open Office users should be content with RTF format until the developer finds it in the bottom of his/her heart to add ODF support.)
• CKPtW does not support batch processing: Users can only convert one PDF at a time. I realize the idea of CKPtW is to allow users to edit PDFs then convert them, so not having batch processing can be justified. However, in my opinion, the usefulness of CKPtW goes down the drain without batch processing because many users will want to be able to convert multiple PDFs to RTF and having to do that one at a time will be a pain in the [bleep].
• CKPtW bugs out if user accidentally clicks on the “Edit” tab without loading a PDF:

The only way to exit the program when this error happens is to force close it via Windows Task Manager (infamous Alt + Ctrl + Delete style).

• CKPtW crashes after exporting PDF as an image:

The PDF is successfully exported as the image (i.e. the image file is created) even though the program crashes.

This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

{rw_freea}

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{rw_verdict2}To me, editing a PDF before converting to RTF (or DOC/DOCX) makes no sense since one of the main reasons to convert to RTF is to be able to edit the PDF. I see no reason to mesh a PDF editor (which lacks the ability to save an edited PDF as a PDF) together with a PDF to Word converter. But hey who am I to judge – for those that desire the ability to edit a PDF before converting to RTF, CAD-KAS PDF to Word provides it. However, unfortunately, CAD-KAS PDF to Word has terrible conversion accuracy. The output files’ contents are completely misaligned, disarranged, and do not resemble the original PDF files in the slightest. I give CAD-KAS PDF to Word converter a thumbs down – rejected! If you want an excellent PDF to Word converter, I highly recommend AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Converter; if you want a PDF editor – which also provides PDF to Word converting capabilities – eXPert PDF Pro 5 is the way to go.
{/rw_verdict2} –>