Convert Word to PDF

To convert Word to PDF, use File, Save As, PDF inside Word, or print the document to the built-in PDF printer on Windows or macOS. PDF Viewer on this site does not turn DOCX into PDF; it opens the PDF you made so you can check it, annotate it or sign it, without uploading. Here is every reliable way, with and without Microsoft Word.

Which Word to PDF method for which case

A DOCX to PDF conversion is one of the easier ones, because the program that owns the layout does the export. The only real choices are which program renders the document and whether you need links, bookmarks and tags preserved.

Main method: Save As PDF in Microsoft Word

1. Open the DOCX in Word and check Print Layout view, since that is what will be exported.
2. Choose File, Save As (on Mac: File, Save As or File, Export).
3. Pick PDF in the file type list.
4. Click Options (Windows) if you need a page range, document properties, bookmarks from headings, or PDF/A compliance.
5. Choose Standard (print quality) or Minimum size (web), then Save.

Without Word: upload the file to Google Drive, open it with Google Docs, then File, Download, PDF Document. In LibreOffice Writer use File, Export As, Export as PDF, which also lets you set image compression and PDF/A-1b. On Windows, Print, choose Microsoft Print to PDF, and Print; on macOS, Print, then click the PDF menu and Save as PDF. Printing works from any app but produces a flat PDF with no clickable links.

Online services (Smallpdf, iLovePDF, Adobe's converter) also do Word to PDF, with the usual caveat: the document is uploaded and processed on their servers.

What changes when Word becomes PDF

• Fonts. Word embeds the fonts it can; fonts with licensing restrictions get substituted, so verify unusual typefaces on the PDF, not in Word.
• Tracked changes and comments. They are exported if they are visible. Accept all changes and delete comments before saving, or they ship with the file.
• Hidden content. Document properties, author name and hidden text can travel into the PDF. Use Inspect Document first for anything you send out.
• Form fields. Word content controls become static text, not fillable PDF form fields.
• Page breaks. The PDF reflects the printer and paper size set in Word, so a Letter document opened on an A4 machine can shift a line onto a new page.

Word to PDF on a phone and from the command line

On an iPhone or Android phone, the Word app has Share, Send a Copy or Export, PDF, which renders the document on the device. Pages on iOS exports with the Share menu, Export, PDF. The Google Docs app offers Share and export, Send a copy, PDF, which renders on Google's servers rather than on the phone. All three keep basic layout, headings and images; footnotes and tracked changes are where phone exports differ from the desktop result.

For batches, LibreOffice has a headless converter: soffice --headless --convert-to pdf *.docx writes a PDF next to every DOCX in the folder, with no window opened. It is the standard way to turn hundreds of Word files into PDFs on a server or in a script. The rendering is LibreOffice's, not Word's, so check a sample for font substitution and page breaks before trusting a whole batch.

Check the result

Open the new PDF in the PDF viewer on this site: page count, heading fonts, tables and image placement are visible at once in the thumbnails sidebar. Use Ctrl+F to confirm the text is searchable, which proves the fonts were embedded as text rather than outlined. If the file is going to someone for approval, you can sign the PDF or add comments right there, and download the result; nothing is uploaded.

Need the reverse direction later? See PDF to Word.

Frequently asked questions