Top free PDF to Word converters

If you need to convert a PDF to Word document anytime soon, you’ve come to the right place. Here at Softonic, we know that finding a decent converter is a big ask. In fact, without breaking out your wallet for a bells and whistles PDF suite, it can be hard to find an app that does the job for free.

A point to bear in mind when converting PDFs to Microsoft Word is that the results vary hugely. If you have a document that is mostly format-free with no images, you’ll find that most of the apps below do a decent job. The more formatting and pictures you add though, the less likely it is you’ll get a good quality conversion.

The job can be made even harder if you need to edit the document once it has been converted. The bottom line? Download a couple of apps and see which does the best job on your particular document. If it’s something you’re going to be doing on a regular basis though, you should really think about buying an app like Nitro PDF Professional or PDF-XChange Viewer. It’s definitely worth the investment.
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GDC 2012: EA Mobile & Social

Outside of the Moscone Center, home of GDC 2012, I took a look at a few of EA Mobile’s newly released and upcoming apps releasing for iOS, Android, and Facebook.

Games from Playfish, PopCap Games, and EA Mobile were on display. Playfish was demoing an update to The Sims Social. PopCap Games was showing off Zuma’s Revenge for iPad and Solitaire Blitz for Facebook. Pogo Games was showing their Android version of their Pogo Games app. Electronic Arts were showing off a few new titles like Mass Effect: Infiltrator and Burnout Crash! for iOS.

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GDC 2012: Quantum Conundrum

Quantum Conundrum is a game that takes its history from Portal. Creative Director of Airtight Games, Kim Swift, is the co-creator of Portal. The work that Airtight Games is doing in the development of Quantum Conundrum takes cues from Portal, but has its own puzzle gameplay and instant addiction.

I mean instant addiction because the demo I played was only a trial, but I want to play the full game. The gameplay is fun and intuitive, something I saw with Portal, but couldn’t get into.

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GDC 2012: Sleeping Dogs hands-on

Sleeping Dogs’ development history is pretty well known. Developed by United Front Games and scheduled for release through Activision, the game was cancelled and brought back to life by Square Enix.

Originally planned as another game in the True Crime series, but now known as Sleeping Dogs, I had a chance to play two levels. The first focused on hand-to-hand combat and the second was to preview of driving.

I admit right now – I want to play this game as soon as possible.

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GDC 2012: Heroes & Generals

With Heroes & Generals, developer Reto-Moto is bringing a World War II free-to-play massive multiplayer online game (MMORPG) first person shooter to PC. Reto-Moto is probably not known in the United States.  The founders were originally part of IO Interactive, who created Hitman.

The game has been seen in video blogs, and I saw the game in alpha in my demo, but PR manager Kenneth Ellegaard Andersen really showed me the work and diligence that the company is putting into the game. The videos Reto-Moto has released online are nothing compared to what they have planned for the future of the game.

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Angry Birds Space is coming!

Angry Birds fans can rejoice again! On March 22, a new game that features everyone’s favorite feathered friends will be released, this time with an outer space theme. Rovio CEO Mikael Hed made the announcement during his keynote speech at CeBIT 2012. The game’s release was also announced from the International Space Station, making it the first announcement of its kind from space, according to Rovio.

Players will have to contend with everything from space’s weightlessness to nearby planets’ gravitational pull in this latest version of Angry Birds. Rovio has also announced that Angry Birds Space will add new costumes and abilities that make the Angry Birds seem more like superheroes! Continue reading “Angry Birds Space is coming!”

GDC 2012: Escape from Age of Monsters

Massive Joe Studios released their first game Age of Monsters in 2011 with the promise of expanding and further establishing the universe drawn by Jeff Matsuda.

At Game Developers Conference 2012, CEO Mike Su showed me an alpha of their second game: Escape from Age of Monsters. Releasing on iOS as a universal app, the game takes advantage of the larger screen of the iPad that I demoed it on.

The game, with a planned release in late April, introduces entirely new gameplay. Instead of the quick rock-paper-scissors game from Age of Monsters, Escape from Age of Monsters is a distance based running game. Adding to the gameplay is the use of two possessed gloves, independently controlled with two on-screen buttons.

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GDC 2012: TERA

Massive multiplayer role playing games (MMORPGs) aren’t games that usually play. The interface always feels too complicated. My demo of TERA at Game Developers Conference showed me that using a controller to perform actions can make the experience a lot more friendly for the console player.

En Masse Entertainment plans on releasing TERA on May 1, 2012 and, for once, I might take a chance on a MMORPG.

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Skype for Mac adds auto updates

Microsoft has updated Skype 5.6 for Mac with auto-updates and some minor improvements to the video calling interface.

This means that finally, users won’t have to download a new DMG file every time a new Skype update is released – it will simply update itself automatically. The video conferencing interface has been tweaked slightly so that users can switch between dynamic and non-dynamic mode.

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Apple announces new Apple TV, iPad, app updates

Apple announced several exciting developments at its special event held in San Francisco today.

Among the announcements, the next generation iPad, new Apple TV, iOS 5.1 update, and several new and updated apps for iPad were top highlights. Several apps and games developed with the new iPad specifically in mind were also demoed at the event.

Here’s a round-up of some of Apple’s big announcements.

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