Quite often as a virtual assistant I need to change documents for my clients (and myself), whether it be spreadsheets in Excel to PDF or PDF documents to Word. However, what I don’t need, is to have to download software on to my computer taking up space and possibly creating safety issues, or paying out for expensive annual or monthly subscriptions.
I use free websites to convert my files and I’ve never had any problems with the conversions created. I’ve listed the free online websites I regularly use to convert and I hope you find them useful.
Converting XLS (Excel) to PDF
I use this predominately to convert one of my clients invoices into PDF. Their invoice template is in Excel, however, certain companies they invoice will only except invoices in PDF form, so rather than having to change my clients template around or start from scratch in a different format, I just convert!
The best website I’ve found to convert excel to PDF is online2pdf.com which you can find here.
https://online2pdf.com/convert-excel-to-pdf
It’s super easy to use, you just select the file you want to convert on your computer and hit the convert button. Simple!
It’s compatible with a variety of formats and you can convert up to 20 files at the same time (a feature I find very handy).
There’s also options to set ‘preferences’ depending on what you want to do and what you’re converting. It also has useful features such as being able to merge your documents, extract pages, reduce file size and much more! https://online2pdf.com/features ….. Check it out and have a play around.
I’ve never had any problems with anything I’ve converted using this site and all your files stay completely confidential, your connection is encrypted and nothing is stored following conversion.
Coverting PDF to Word and Back Again
I mainly convert PDF to Word to change and edit documents sent over as PDF’s. Of course you can do this through Adobe, however, you usually have to pay to be able to do this and when money’s tight and/or the number of times you have to do this doesn’t justify the expense, pdfonline.com is the best converter I’ve used to convert PDF’s to Word.
http://www.pdfonline.com/pdf-to-word-converter/
It’s simple to use and again there’s no software to download. You just upload the PDF you want to convert and hit convert!
You will see ads down the right hand side, usually advertising conversion software for sale, there’s no need to download or buy anything (unless of course you want to).
They offer other free online conversions as well, including Word back to PDF.
PDF to JPG
Some social media platforms along with other sites don’t like you uploading PDF’s so I use pdf2jpg.net to convert any PDF’s I want to JPEG’s. Like the other sites I’ve mentioned, its free and you don’t need to download any software.
Its really easy to use, you simply upload your PDF, hit convert to JPEG and voila!
Again you may see some ads about downloads etc, but you don’t need to buy or download anything!
They also have a handy video tutorial to help you out if need be and for security nothing is kept or stored!
I’d recommend reading individual sites privacy policies and making sure you’re completely happy with the way in which they convert and handle your documents before using them.
Although most sites, as a rule, have the ‘same’ policies, often the length of time they store your files differs so always be sure to check them out.
There are plenty of free sites that do conversions, varying in quality and accessibility. Some sites ask you to download software, other sites send you your conversion via email etc etc. The few I’ve listed are my personal preferences and the sites I go to and use on a regular basis. They may not necessarily be what works best for you though so ‘shop’ around to find the best fit!