About Word to PDF
A Word document looks the way it does because of the program and fonts on the machine that opened it. Send it to someone else and it can reflow: a table splits across pages, a heading lands at the foot, a font is swapped for another. A PDF freezes the layout, so what you wrote is what they see. That is the whole case for converting.
This tool converts a .docx, .doc, .odt or .rtf file into a PDF. The layout is produced by a real office suite, which is why the result generally matches the way the document would print. This conversion runs on our conversion service rather than in your browser, because an office suite cannot run in a web page. The file is uploaded, converted and deleted as soon as the answer has been sent back. It is free, and there is no account.
How to convert a Word document to PDF
- Choose your document. Accepted types are .docx, .doc, .odt and .rtf. You can also drop it onto the page.
- Press the convert button. The file is sent to the conversion service, converted and returned. A short document takes a few seconds; one with many images takes longer.
- Look at the preview of the result. Check the places where layout most often shifts: tables, page breaks, headers and footers, and any special font.
- Save the PDF.
- If something moved, check the original document first. A layout problem in the PDF is usually a layout problem in the Word file, such as a font that is not installed on the converting machine.
When you would use it
- Sending a CV, a contract or a proposal so that it opens identically on every device.
- Submitting an application to a portal that only accepts PDF.
- Archiving a finished document in a form that cannot be accidentally edited.
- Producing a file you can then sign, watermark or protect with a password.
- Converting a document from an open format such as .odt for someone who does not have the program that made it.
What it will not do
- It is a conversion of the file, not a copy of what you see in Word. If your document uses a font that the converting machine does not have, a similar one is substituted, and the line breaks may shift slightly.
- It converts the document’s content. Comments, tracked changes and macros are not what a PDF is for, and the layout of any hidden material should not be relied on.
- The upload is limited in size, at about 50 megabytes, and each person can have only a couple of conversions running at the same time.
- It converts one file at a time.
- It is not a way to get an editable file back. To go the other way, use PDF to Word, which makes an approximation.
How it compares
Word’s own "Save as PDF" is the best route when you have Word, the original fonts and the original file. This tool is for when you do not: a machine without Office, a phone, a document in a format another program wrote, or a person who wants the conversion without installing anything.
Because an office suite does the layout, the output is generally closer to the original than conversions that try to draw a Word file from scratch. Because it runs on a server, though, the file has to leave your computer, which is why we say so before you choose it and delete the copy as soon as the answer has been returned.
Tips
- Embed or choose common fonts in the original if the exact appearance matters. A document set in an unusual font may not convert identically.
- If the conversion is slow or fails, try again in a moment. Each person is limited in how many conversions run at once so that nobody can take the service from everyone else.