Guides — how to get file and document jobs done

Practical, honest guides to everyday file problems: shrinking PDFs, compressing photos, making scans searchable and more.

How to convert a PDF to Word without losing the formatting — Why PDFs lose their layout in Word, when the formatting can be kept, and the fastest honest route for each kind of document.
How to get a photo under 100 KB without it looking terrible — Upload forms reject large photos. Here is which setting actually reduces the file size, and how far you can push it before anyone notices.
Merging PDFs without uploading them to a stranger's server — Most online PDF mergers upload your documents. Here is why that matters for contracts and payslips, and how to combine files without it.
How to make a scanned PDF searchable — Why you cannot select text in a scan, what OCR really does, and how to get reliable results from an ordinary scanner or phone camera.
PDF too large to email? How to shrink it properly — Attachment limits, why rasterising a text document makes it worse, and how to get a PDF under the limit without turning the text to mush.
How to remove the background from a photo — and when it will fail — What automatic cutout tools do well, which photos defeat all of them, and how to get a clean transparent PNG for a listing or profile picture.
HEIC won't open on Windows: how to convert iPhone photos to JPG — Why an iPhone photo refuses to open on a PC or in an upload form, and the quickest way to turn HEIC into JPG without installing anything.
Resizing an image to exact dimensions without distorting it — Marketplaces and application forms demand exact pixel sizes. How to hit them, and what to do when the required ratio is not your photo's ratio.
Getting a table out of a PDF and into Excel — Why copy and paste turns a PDF table into one mangled column, which methods actually work, and how to check the result before you trust it.
Making a QR code that still works in five years — Why free QR generators quietly stop working, the difference between static and dynamic codes, and how to print one that cannot be switched off.