How to save a Word document as a PDF

Why send a PDF instead of the Word file?

A Word document looks different on every computer. Fonts get substituted, page breaks move, and a reader with an old version of Word or a phone app sees something other than what you saw. Tracked changes and comments can travel with it too. A PDF freezes the layout. Everyone sees the same pages, nobody edits it by accident, and it opens in any browser.

Send a PDF for anything final: a resume, a cover letter, an invoice, a contract, a report. Keep the DOCX for yourself as the editable master, and send the Word file only when the other person has to edit it.

How to save a Word document as a PDF on Windows

Word for Windows has had PDF export built in since Word 2010. There are two menus that do the same thing.

The other route is File, Export, Create PDF/XPS Document, Create PDF/XPS. It opens the same dialog. The Minimum size option compresses pictures more and is handy for email, but check photos afterwards. The Standard setting is the right one for printing.

1. Open the document and go to File, Save As. Choose the folder.
2. In the Save as type list below the file name, pick PDF (*.pdf).
3. Click Options if you want a page range, to include document properties, or to create bookmarks from headings. Leave Standard selected unless the file must be small.
4. Click Save. Word writes the PDF and opens it in your default PDF viewer. Your DOCX is unchanged.

How to save a Word doc as a PDF on a Mac

Word for Mac offers the same thing with slightly different wording, and macOS adds a second way through the print dialog that works in any app.

The Best for electronic distribution option uploads the document to Microsoft to convert. For a confidential document, pick Best for printing or the Print route, which both stay on your machine.

1. Go to File, Save As. Set File Format to PDF at the bottom of the dialog.
2. Choose Best for electronic distribution and accessibility, which goes through Microsoft's servers and keeps hyperlinks and bookmarks, or Best for printing, which is made on your Mac and keeps the fonts exact.
3. Click Export.
4. Alternatively, choose File, Print, then Save as PDF from the PDF menu in the bottom left corner. This works in Pages, TextEdit and every other Mac app too, but it drops clickable links.

How to download a Google Doc as a PDF

Google Docs makes a PDF in the browser in one step, and the result is clean, with the fonts you used in the document.

If you have a Word file but no Word, Google Docs is also a converter. Upload the DOCX to Google Drive, open it with Google Docs, and download it as a PDF. Complex Word layouts, such as text boxes, custom fonts and some table formatting, may shift in Google Docs, so look over the pages before sending.

1. Open the document in Google Docs.
2. Go to File, Download, PDF Document (.pdf). The PDF lands in your Downloads folder.
3. On the Google Docs phone app, tap the three dots, then Share and export, then Save as, and choose PDF Document.

How to convert DOCX to PDF free without Word

You do not need Word to turn a DOCX into a PDF. Word to PDF converts DOCX documents to PDF in the browser, with text, tables and pictures. It is free, needs no sign-up, adds no watermark, accepts files up to 300 MB and up to 50 files at once, and the files are processed in memory and deleted after 30 minutes. It works on a phone as well as a computer, which is useful when a client sends a DOCX while you are away from your desk.

Other free routes: LibreOffice, a free desktop office suite, exports to PDF with File, Export As, Export as PDF and keeps most Word formatting. The free Word for the web also opens a DOCX and downloads a PDF, with a Microsoft account. For older .doc, .odt or .rtf files, Convert document format converts between DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, TXT, HTML and PDF.

1. Open Word to PDF.
2. Drop the DOCX files on the page or pick them from your device.
3. Download the PDF when it is ready, and open it once to check the pages.

Check the fonts and layout before you send

A PDF is only as good as the document behind it. Spend one minute on these checks, in Word before you export and in the PDF after.

• Fonts. Word embeds the fonts it can. If the document uses a font with licensing restrictions, Word substitutes it in the PDF and the lines reflow. Stick to common fonts such as Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman or Georgia for anything you share.
• Page size. US readers and printers expect Letter. If a template came from abroad, it may be A4, which prints with cropped margins. Check Layout, Size.
• Page breaks. Open the PDF and look at the last line of each page. A heading alone at the bottom of a page, or a one-line paragraph at the top, is easy to fix with a page break in Word.
• Tracked changes and comments. Accept all changes and delete comments before exporting, or set Markup to No Markup. Otherwise they can be printed into the PDF.
• Hyperlinks. Save As PDF keeps them clickable. Printing to PDF does not. Test one link in the PDF.
• Document properties. The author name and title you see in File, Info end up in the PDF's metadata. Clear them with Inspect Document if the file goes to a stranger.
• Resumes. Export from the Save As dialog, not from a screenshot or a photo of the screen, so that applicant tracking systems can read the text.

PDF/A for archives and official filings

PDF/A is a stricter variant of PDF made for long-term storage. All fonts are embedded, nothing depends on external resources, and encryption and JavaScript are not allowed. Courts, government portals and many universities require it for filings and theses.

Word for Windows can produce it directly. In the Save As dialog with PDF selected, click Options and check ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A). Word for Mac has no PDF/A option. If a portal requires PDF/A and you are on a Mac, export from Word for Windows or from LibreOffice, whose PDF export dialog has an Archive (PDF/A) checkbox. A PDF/A is somewhat larger than a normal PDF because every font is embedded in full.

Protecting and shrinking the PDF afterwards

Once the PDF exists you may want to lock it or make it lighter. Word's Options dialog can set a password on the PDF on Windows, with Encrypt the document with a password, but the Mac version cannot, and many people only think of it when the file is already made.

Protect PDF locks a PDF with a password using AES-256 encryption, so only people who know it can open the file. Use it for pay stubs, contracts and anything with a Social Security number or bank details. Send the password through a different channel than the file, for example a text message if the PDF went by email.

If the PDF is too large for an email attachment because of photos or scanned signatures, Compress PDF makes it smaller for email and upload, keeping it readable. And when a document needs a signature before it goes out, the Sign PDF tool lets you draw, type or upload one and place it on the page.