Convert PDFs to editable Office formats with Nutrient Document Web Services API on Zapier

What is Zapier?

Zapier is an automation platform that connects your favorite apps and services with no code required. You can build “Zaps” to automate repetitive tasks by setting up triggers and actions between apps like Google Drive, Slack, Gmail, and more.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Zapier to automatically convert PDFs into editable Microsoft Office documents using the Nutrient API.

What is the Nutrient API?

Nutrient Document Web Services API is a powerful platform for document automation. With your free account, you get 100 credits, which you can use to perform various document operations. Each tool (e.g. conversion, signing, flattening) consumes a different amount of credits depending on complexity.

Nutrient offers more than 30 tools with the ability to:

• Convert PDFs and documents into Office files

• Merge, split, or reorder pages

• Add watermarks, annotations, or signatures

• Run OCR, redact, flatten, and more

All you need is an API key from a free account to get started. You can chain these tools together in Zapier to build powerful, automated workflows.

What you’ll need

• A Zapier account (a pro plan is necessary for multi-step Zaps)

• A Google Drive account

• A PDF file uploaded to a Google Drive folder

• A Nutrient Document Web Services API key — sign up here

Step 1 — Trigger a new file in a Google Drive folder

1. Select Google Drive as the trigger app.

2. Choose the New File in Folder trigger event.

3. Connect your Google Drive account.

4. Configure the trigger:

• In the Drive field, select your Google Drive.

• In the Folder field, select or create a folder (e.g. pdf-to-office).

• Ensure that the option for Include Deleted Files? is set to Only return non-deleted files.

5. Test the trigger by selecting a sample PDF file from the folder to confirm it’s being pulled into the Zap correctly.

Step 2 — Convert PDF to Office format (Nutrient API)

1. Select Nutrient Document Web Services API as the action app.

2. Choose the Convert PDF to Office (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) action.

3. Connect your Nutrient API account using your API key.

You can find your API key in the Nutrient dashboard.

4. Fill out the action fields:

• PDF File URL — Use the file from step 1 (Google Drive trigger).

• Output Format — Choose from docx, xlsx, or pptx.

• Output File Name — Optional (e.g. editable_file.docx).

5. Test the step to confirm the PDF is successfully converted into the chosen Office format.

Step 3 — Upload the converted Office file to Google Drive

1. Add a new step by selecting Google Drive as the app and Upload File as the action event. Connect your Google Drive account if needed.

2. Select your drive and the folder where the output Office file should be saved. In the File field, use the output from the Nutrient API step.

3. Test the Zap to confirm that the Office file is uploaded to your target folder.

Conclusion

With this Zap, you’ve automated the process of turning static PDFs into editable Office formats like DOCX, XLSX, or PPTX using the Nutrient API. This is ideal for workflows where you need to extract, edit, or collaborate on content from PDFs. Expand your flow by chaining steps for annotation, OCR, or Office-to-PDF conversion.