FAQ / Problems

Frequently asked questions & common problems

Common problems
The converted PDF file is larger than the original one.#1
Usually, the file is smaller after conversion. If this is not the case, use the compression settings below the file selection to adjust the file size of the PDF. There you can easily decrease the quality and resolution of the images inside the PDF which results in a much smaller file size.
The download does not start or I'm unable find the converted file.#2
All converted files are usually saved in the predefined download folder automatically. This folder depends on your browser settings. By default it's located at "C:\User\YourName\Downloads". If you can't find this download folder or the particular browser settings: Wait until the conversion is done and you will see the the link "Manual download" appearing. By right-clicking on this link you can use the "Save as..." option to save your file at a location of your choice.
Some fonts are missing in the converted PDF.#3
If you are using your own fonts, which are not included in Windows and MS-Office by default, embed these fonts explicitly in your document (see How to embed fonts in a Word document, in Powerpoint or in Publisher). Otherwise, only standard fonts of Windows and MS Office are supported and your own fonts are lost, since they are not included in the document and therefore they are not available during conversion.
When converting Excel to PDF, the date is displayed in an incorrect format or in a wrong language.#4
Click on the preference tab called "Excel" below the file selection. There you can define the language for all dates.
If your language is not available, this problem can also be solved directly in Excel by choosing a date format which begins WITHOUT an asterisk (*) in the "Format Cells" dialog window. All date formats beginning WITHOUT an asterisk (*) include your language and therefore your date will be formatted correctly during conversion.
The date format can be changed by: right clicking on the cell ➔ Format Cells... ➔ Date
When converting Excel to PDF or PDF to Excel, the decimal separator and/or the thousands separator is converted wrongly.#5
Depending on the language and country there are differente notations: either a point (.) or comma (,) is used. At the preference tab "Excel" below the file selection you can can define the particular decimal separator which should be used during conversion.
When converting PDF to Excel, the date is formatted wrongly or the order of month and day is reversed.#6
Click on the preference tab "Excel" below the file selection. There you can define the language and therefore also the correct order of the dates. The option "English (US)" uses MM/DD/YYYY while all other options use DD/MM/YYYY.
When editing/unlocking the PDF file, all interactive form fields are removed.#7
It's not possible to retain interactive form fields when converting a PDF (i.e. form fields which can be filled out, checkboxes or selectable drop-down fields).
All my files are merged together instead of converted separately.#8
Make sure that you have changed the conversion mode to 'Convert files separately' below the file selection (also see the Help). If you do not change this option, all files are merged together by default.
After the conversion from PDF to Word, Excel or Powerpoint, there are only symbols, incorrect characters or gibberish.#9
The reason for this behavior is that the PDF document contains wrong or missing character encodings. Since all the needed information about the included characters is missing or incorrect, a proper conversion is not possible. But you can try to perform an optical character recognition (OCR) to get the right information of the characters. Choose the OCR option before the conversion and select the language of the text in your document. If this doesn't improve the result you can activate the checkbox "Advanced OCR" additionally.
After the conversion from PDF to Word, spaces between words are missing when opening the file in Word 2007.#10
Make sure you have installed all latest updates for Office 2007 or the last Service Pack for Office. Afterwards the problem should be fixed. More information about the latest Service Pack can be found at the Microsoft Help Page.
After the conversion from PDF to Word or Powerpoint, the text is not editable.#11
The reason for this behavior is that the text is probably inside an image or the whole PDF is a scanned document. In this case an optical character recognition (OCR) in images is necessary. Choose the OCR option before the conversion and select the language of the text in your document.
After the conversion from PDF to Excel, the Excel sheet is empty.#12
The reason for this behavior is that the text is probably inside an image or the whole PDF is a scanned document. In this case an optical character recognition (OCR) in images is necessary. Choose the OCR option before the conversion and select the language of the text in your document.
The conversion from PDF to Word, Excel, Powerpoint or images is incompleted. Only 500 pages (without OCR) or 100 (with OCR) pages are converted.#13
Note that only 500 pages (without OCR) or 100 pages (with OCR) can be converted due to perfomance reasons when using this conversion method. This limit only affects the conversion from PDF to Word/Excel/Powerpoint/images conversion, the other way around is not limited. This hint is also displayed below the dropdown field after changing the output format to something different than PDF.
My PDF file contains a DRM-Protection (i.e. it is a licensed PDF which needs credentials and an internet connection). The unlocking or conversion of this file fails.#14
Generally, a DRM-Protection cannot be removed. Also a further processing or conversion is not possible.
When converting a file, I added an authorization protection (like for printing, copying, modifying). My PDF-Viewer seems to ignore this protection.#15
The authorization protection (not to be confused with the read-protection!) can be ignored by some PDF-Viewers. Only products of Adobe, like Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, provide full support for the authorization protection. In contrast to that the read-protection (password for opening) is not affected because this way the complete file content is fully encrypted and therefore it's only readable with the correct password.
When saving a PDF with the plugin from Adobe Acrobat Pro, an error occurs in the process of 'Fast Web View'.#16
There is an error because the plugin is trying to download the file once again. This is not possible because the download is only working once. To fix this problem, just disable the 'Fast Web View' in the Adobe preferences (Edit ➔ Preferences ➔ Internet).
I have another problem.#17
If you have other problems or questions, which are not answered yet, feel free to write me a description of your problem in the Feedback-Section. Usually you'll get an answer within a few hours.
General
How safe is Online2PDF.com? Are my files stored?#18
All files and data are treated as strictly confidential, of course. Your files are stored temporarily on the server of Online2PDF. After the conversion they will be deleted immediately.
More information can be found here: Data Protection / Security.
Is there a local or downloadable version of this PDF converter?#19
No, only the online-based version is available
Is there a Web-API for developers?#20
No, the converter is only intended for end-users. Automatic scripts are not allowed and heavy usage is not possible.
Is Online2PDF.com really for free?#21
Yes, of course. All services of Online2PDF are completely free of charges.
What does PDF mean?#22
The Portable Document Format (PDF) is the file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange.
Which program/software is able to open PDF documents?#23
PDF-files can be opened by Adobe Reader (Download) . But there are many other programs, which support PDF.
What are the features of Online2PDF?#24
You can convert your text, images or documents into the PDF format only in a few seconds. The files will be uploaded and afterwards converted. After this process has finished, the download of the PDF file is available. The conversions are fast, free and are based on a user-friendly interface.But Online2PDF offers even more useful features. For more information visit Features.
Is it possible to convert several files/documents/images to one PDF?#25
Yes, it is. Select some files and convert them. They will be merged together in the same order.
What are the advantages of a PDF document?#26
PDF documents can be read with a free viewer/reader on every platform (Windows, Linux, Mac...). Furthermore, the PDF content is platform independend which means that the content is displayed exactly the same on every platform without any graphical differences.
When you convert a document to PDF, it will automatically be highly optimized making it much smaller in size without losing any quality and it avoid people from modifying your work.
There is a structured storage system to bundle elements, such as text, images and any associated content into a single file, with data compression where appropriate.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF)
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From the developer of Online2PDF.com