Ever had a long document with several pictures and wanted to copy images only? Well, there’s an app for that as they say and here’s 5 ways to copy images from PDF or Word that will cover most any circumstance. Further good news is most methods don’t require any additional software!

First things first…If the document is a PDF, you want to convert it to a Word file. If you have Word 2013 or above, you can do this without any other software.

Convert a PDF to a Word File

You must open the file inside of Word. Double-clicking it in a directory would open it in the PDF software.

Open MS Word:

1. File | Open or CTRL O and browse to the PDF file.
2. Depending on your version of Word:
   • The PDF may load with an Info Bar to Enable Editing. Click that link and the PDF is loaded and can be edited like any Word file but is still in PDF format.
   • Click Save icon and the Save As dialog box will display and automatically change the format to .docx, OR
   • Word will notify that the file is being converted to the Word format. Click OK. The PDF will then load as a Word document. When file is converted, choose File | Save As or press F12 function key. Change the filename if desired or you can keep the same name as the original PDF as they are two different formats.

Now you have both PDF and Word formats of the document.

Copy Just the Images

Here’s what will automatically put the images in a separate folder:

1. Do Save As again (get in the habit of using F12 as it works across Office and saves time and maybe even saves a little carpal tunnel).
2. Change the file type in Save as type: to Web Page (*.htm; *.html) OR Web Page Filtered (*.htm,*.html). Either works; only difference being that Web Page preserves all Office formatting tags and Web Page Filtered saves with regular tags and some formatting may be lost. The former format would maintain quality as well.

Note: After saving in this format, your Word document will display in Web Layout View. If you want to switch back to Page Layout View, click its icon on lower right of Status Bar or select View | Print Layout in Views group on Ribbon.

Locate the Graphics

Saving in either Web Page format will automatically create a folder with the same name as your Word file with _files added to the end of the folder name and saved to same directory. This contains all the pictures as separate files in the .jpg or .png format depending on type of graphic. Filenames will be labelled Image001, Image002, etc., and can now be renamed, copied or moved. Like magic…who knew?

Here’s another method if you already have a Word file containing images, by changing the file extension:

Change the File Extension from “.docx” to “.zip”

This way extracts all the images from the document as a batch just by changing the file extension! Ensure your file is in the .docx extension (Word 2007 and above), and it’s not a bad idea to make a copy of the Word file and use the copy to change the extension, for safety’s sake.

Note: If you just send the Word document to a zipped folder without changing the extension, the document gets zipped and unzipped as a whole, and the images are not extracted.

• Ensure that document is closed, and in the file directory, right click on the filename and choose “Rename” (or press F2 function key to select the name).
• Change the extension to “.zip”. (Make sure you don’t delete the “.”) Press ENTER.
• You will get a warning dialog box but just click Yes button.

• The new zipped folder will display with the same filename as your Word file.
• Double click on that folder and Windows will display the Extract group on the Ribbon.
• Click Extract All icon.

The same folder displays but is now unzipped Double click the Word  folder and then Media folder. All images are there in .jpg format.

Copy Images with Save As Picture
Method

This is a direct method to copy images you can do one by one if you want a single or small number of pictures:

• Right click over desired picture.
• Choose Save As Picture…

• Save As dialog box opens with Pictures folder as location. Change filename or location as needed. Image will automatically be saved in .jpg format.
• Can now be opened in any image editing program .

Copy and Paste Method

This is last resort if you have an older Office version and the Save As Picture… command does not display on right click. A simple and copy and paste will work for one or two pictures:

1. Right-click on the image and choose Copy.
2. Open any image editing software such as Paint in Windows or freeware such as Paint.NET.
3. Paste the image and click Save button (or CTRL S) to save the image.
4. Paint will save in .png format but you can change to .jpg or choose from many other formats .

Use Zip Software to Extract Images

Third party unzipping software is usually no longer needed but there are free, reliable options such as 7-Zip for compressing/extracting files and graphics. After installing, when you right click on a picture, that software option should display in the shortcut menu. Click it and a separate folder should be created containing the pictures.

Hopefully, one of these was “picture perfect” for you and now your images are all in one place for easy access.

If you would like more information on different ways to save a Word or Office document as a PDF, see my blog here…https://gaylelarson.com/word-document-pdf-format/

Let me know which technique(s) worked best for you in the Comments below. Thanks for reading!