Analyzing a Document Converted from a PDF Takes a Long Time

  • What happens: When Contract Tools analyzes a Word document converted from a PDF, analysis takes a long time, and Word may temporarily become unresponsive (freeze, hang).

  • What this means: Word documents converted from PDFs using some third-party conversion applications may include numerous, slight formatting adjustments. In some cases, every character (letter) in a converted Word document may be formatted individually. The way in which these formatting adjustments are implemented in Word documents can make analysis take a long time, especially in Word 2013 and later.

  • What you should do: Use Word 2013 or later instead of a third-party conversion application to convert PDFs to Word documents; search for “opening PDFs” in Word Help to learn how. As an alternative, copy text in the converted Word document, paste unformatted text into a new Word document, and then analyze this new Word document. To learn how to paste unformatted text, search for “paste text only” in Word Help.

For general information about analysis, see Analyzing Documents.