PDF Text Extraction: What You Get and What You Do Not
How PDF stores text vs. how you read it
A PDF does not store sentences. It stores characters with positions. Extracting text means figuring out the reading order from those positions. For a simple single-column document, this is straightforward. For multi-column layouts, the extracted order may jump between sections.
Why this is different from copy-pasting
Copy-pasting from a PDF viewer does the same extraction, just one page or selection at a time. This tool does the whole document at once.
When to use PDF to Text vs. PDF to Word
Text: you just need the content. Word: you need to edit the document and preserve headings, tables, and layout. The difference is formatting.
If the extracted text looks scrambled, the source PDF likely has a multi-column layout. Check the output manually — this is normal for certain PDF formats.