Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Paperwise can turn a scan into a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint deck you can edit. Unlike PDFs, these files are built on our server, so Paperwise always tells you and asks first.

What it is

In a document’s Share sheet, the Word, Excel and PowerPoint chips make Office files:

Format	What you get
Word	Paragraphs and headings from the page text.
Excel	Rows and columns from the position of the text on the page.
PowerPoint	One slide per page, with each page fitted to the slide.

Word and Excel files are built from the page text, so they leave out signatures and annotations you added with Markup. PowerPoint slides are page images, so they include them.

For Word and Excel, Pro adds Keep the layout. It uses AI to rebuild the page more faithfully:

In Word, it rebuilds headings, lists and tables to match the page.
In Excel, it finds the tables and keeps numbers and dates as values.

Without it (the basic layout), the conversion uses no AI.

When to use it

You need to edit the text of a letter or a form.
You want the numbers of a statement or an invoice in a spreadsheet.
You want to present scanned pages in a slideshow.

Step by step

Make a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file

Open the document and tap Share.
Tap Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
Tap Share Word (or Share Excel, Share PowerPoint).
A sheet titled “Converted on our server” explains what happens. Tap Continue to go ahead, or Cancel to stop; nothing is sent if you cancel. It comes back the first time you convert this document in each session. Turn on Don’t ask again for this document if you don’t want to be asked again.
A progress bar shows the file being built. Then the iOS share sheet opens: save the file to Files, email it, or open it in another app.

Keep the layout (Pro)

In the Share sheet, tap Word or Excel.
Turn on Keep the layout (“Uses our AI provider. Asks before anything is sent.”).
Tap Share Word or Share Excel.
Paperwise asks twice: first the “Converted on our server” sheet, then the AI sheet: “AI is on for this document. Its pages and text are sent to our AI provider to rebuild the layout.” Tap Continue on both to go ahead.

Keep the layout uses the AI helper, so turn it on first in Account → AI helper. Each conversion with it counts as one of your AI actions.

Free and Pro

	Free	Pro
Word, Excel, PowerPoint (basic layout)	Yes	Yes
Keep the layout (Word, Excel)	No	Yes

One limit differs: when a page has no recognised text, our server reads it with its own text recognition (not AI). Without Pro, a conversion can include at most 5 such pages. With more, the file isn’t made and the plans screen opens instead: let Paperwise finish reading the pages, or convert fewer pages.

Pro’s AI limits apply to Keep the layout: 20 AI actions a day and 300 a month. See AI limits and usage.

Privacy

This is one of the few times content from your vault leaves your iPhone readable, and only when you start it. Here is exactly what is sent.

	What our server receives
Word	The document’s title, your language and region setting, the text recognised on each page (line by line), and a 1600 px page image only for a page without recognised text
Excel	The title, the text recognised on each page, and a 1600 px page image only for a page without recognised text
PowerPoint	The title and the full page images

Our server processes it in memory, for a few seconds, and discards it once the file is sent back. It isn’t stored.
While that happens, the pages aren’t end-to-end encrypted. That’s why Paperwise asks first.
With Keep the layout, the 1600 px pages and their text also go to our AI provider (OpenAI), with storage turned off and without any user identifier. OpenAI doesn’t train on API data, but under its standard terms it may keep requests for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. The document then shows a small AI badge.
A document marked Never send to AI can still be converted with the basic layout, which doesn’t use AI, but Keep the layout won’t run for it.
Hidden items aren’t converted: hide a document and it leaves this screen.

All the details are in the security whitepaper.

Tips

Conversions work from the text Paperwise already recognised. A clean, straight scan gives a much better Word or Excel file: fix the page first with Edit → Crop, rotate and filter.
For a document you only need to read or send, a PDF is made on your iPhone and sends nothing to our server.
If a long document is too big, split it into parts and convert each part.

What if…

What if it says the export works on up to 50 pages?

Word, Excel and PowerPoint take up to 50 pages at a time. Keep the layout takes up to 20. Split the document first: Split and merge.

What if I see “Keep the layout is unavailable right now”, or I’ve reached my AI limit?

Paperwise offers Use basic layout, which keeps your text and tables without AI. Tap it to get your file now.

What if I see “Couldn’t reach our server to build this file”?

Office files need a connection. Try again when you’re online, or send a PDF instead.

What if the spreadsheet has everything in one column?

The basic layout builds columns from where the text sits on the page. A tilted or curved page confuses it: straighten the page and try again, or use Keep the layout (Pro).

What if I said “Don’t ask again” and want to be asked?

That choice is remembered for that document only. Other documents still ask, the first time you convert each one in a session. To be asked again for every document, open Account → AI helper → Ask before converting on our server (it reads “Not for N” while some documents skip the question) and tap Ask again.