macOS Preview is a capable tool for basic PDF work: you can view, annotate, rotate, reorder, delete, and combine pages, fill some forms, sign, and export a page as an image. But it stops short of three common jobs: converting a PDF to an editable Word or Excel file, running OCR on scanned documents, and giving you fine control over file size reduction. For those tasks, you need a dedicated app or an online PDF tool. This post covers exactly what Preview can and can’t do, and what to use instead.

What Preview Can Do: a Quick Tour

Preview isn’t a full PDF editor, but it handles several everyday tasks without extra software. You can open any PDF and:

  • View and navigate through pages, zoom, and search text.
  • Annotate with highlights, notes, and drawings.
  • Rotate, reorder, delete, and combine pages. To combine, open one PDF, drag thumbnails from another into the sidebar, then save.
  • Fill some forms and sign documents with a drawn or typed signature.
  • Export a PDF as an image (PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and more).

These features cover a lot of ground for casual use. But when you need to extract editable text or control compression quality, Preview’s limits become clear.

The Three Jobs Preview Can’t Do

Preview’s design is for reading and light editing, not for transforming PDFs into other formats or handling scanned documents. Here are the three specific gaps:

1. Convert a PDF to an Editable Word or Excel File

Preview can export a PDF as an image, but it cannot turn the PDF into a Word document or Excel spreadsheet that you can edit directly. If you need to reuse content from a PDF in a report, presentation, or data sheet, you’re stuck.

2. Run OCR on Scanned PDFs

Scanned PDFs are essentially images of text. Preview can view them and annotate them, but it cannot recognize the text (OCR). Without OCR, you can’t search, copy, or extract text from a scanned document.

3. Control Compression Quality

Preview’s Reduce File Size filter applies a heavy compression that can blur images and reduce clarity. It gives you no slider or option to balance file size against image quality. For presentations or documents where visual detail matters, that’s a problem.

What to Use Instead: Free Online Tools

For all three jobs, a free online PDF tool works well. You don’t need to install anything, and it runs on any device. One such service is PDFBear (pdfbear.com), which offers more than 50 tools that work in your browser. Files are deleted automatically after processing, so your privacy is protected. Below are the tools that fill Preview’s gaps.

You can access these as free online PDF tools without signing up, though a free account unlocks a trial of paid features like larger file sizes and faster processing.

Convert PDF to Word or Excel

With PDFBear, you upload a PDF and choose to convert it to Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx). The conversion extracts the text, tables, and images into an editable file. This works for PDFs that already contain selectable text (not scanned). For scanned PDFs, you need OCR first.

Run OCR on Scanned PDFs

PDFBear’s OCR tool processes scanned PDFs and outputs a searchable PDF or text. Upload the scan, and the tool recognizes the text so you can copy, search, or export it. After OCR, you can convert the result to Word or Excel if needed.

Compress PDF with Control

Instead of Preview’s one-size-fits-all compression, PDFBear’s compress tool lets you choose a compression level. You can reduce file size significantly while keeping images clear enough for screen viewing or moderate printing. There’s no guesswork.

Other Handy Tools Preview Lacks

Preview doesn’t offer these common PDF tasks either. If you ever need to:

  • Merge multiple PDFs into one (Preview can combine, but only by dragging thumbnails; a dedicated merge tool is faster).
  • Split a PDF into separate files by page or range.
  • Extract pages to a new PDF.
  • Crop pages to remove white space or margins.
  • Repair a damaged PDF that won’t open.
  • Add an eSignature (Preview has a basic sign tool, but not a full eSign workflow).
  • Convert images, HTML, or text files to PDF (Preview can only create PDFs from its own print function, which is limited).
  • Convert PDF to PowerPoint, JPG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP, PDF/A, or plain text.

All of these are available in the same online toolset. For example, you can upload a batch of images and convert them to a single PDF, or take a PDF and export it as a series of JPEGs or PNGs. The tools run in your browser, so you can work from any computer, phone, or tablet.

When to Stick with Preview

Preview isn’t obsolete. For quick annotations, combining a few pages, or signing a contract, it’s perfectly fine. It’s also preinstalled on every Mac, so there’s nothing to download. Use Preview when:

  • You only need to view, annotate, or sign a PDF.
  • You want to reorder or delete a few pages.
  • You need to export a single page as an image.
  • You don’t require OCR or conversion to Office formats.

But for any task that involves changing the format, extracting editable text from a scan, or compressing a file without ruining image quality, Preview will leave you wanting. That’s when a dedicated online PDF tool fills the gap quickly and without cost.

Getting Started with the Right Tool

If you’ve hit Preview’s limits, you don’t need to buy expensive software. Just open a browser, go to a service like PDFBear, and pick the tool you need. There’s no installation, no account required for basic use, and files are deleted after processing. You can convert a PDF to Word, run OCR on a scanned contract, or compress a large presentation in minutes.

Remember: Preview is great for what it does, but it was never designed for format conversion or OCR. For those jobs, a free online PDF tool is the practical choice. Bookmark it for the next time you need to turn a PDF into a spreadsheet or pull text out of a scan.