How to convert Word to PDF

Converting a Word document to PDF is how a draft becomes something you send: it fixes the layout, so the reader sees what you saw. What goes wrong is rarely the conversion itself. It is the paper the document is set on, and the one wide table that runs off the edge of it.

Open Word to PDFConvert a document into a PDF

Step by step

  1. Upload the document

    Drop a .docx onto Word to PDF. Older .doc files, .rtf, .odt and plain .txt work too. One document per conversion, up to 80 MB.

  2. Set the page

    For a .docx or .odt you can choose the Page size (A4, Letter, Legal or A3), the Orientation and the Margins, with a live preview of the paper beside them. Leave size and orientation on Auto to keep whatever the document already uses.

  3. Keep wide tables inside the page

    "Fit everything on one page wide" is on by default for a .docx. It scales a too-wide table's columns down together until the whole table sits between the margins, so its last columns are not cut off. The rest of the text keeps its size.

  4. Check it, then download

    Create PDF lays the document out on real pages. The finished PDF is shown in full on the result screen with its page count, so you can look at every page before you press Download PDF.

Older .doc, .rtf and .txt files keep their own page setup

Only .docx and .odt files carry page settings the converter can rewrite, so for the older formats the page controls are not shown and the PDF comes out on the size, orientation and margins the file was saved with. If you need a different paper size, save the document as .docx in Word first, or convert it as it is and run the PDF through Resize PDF afterwards.

If a font comes out different

The document is laid out by a full office engine on our server, with metric-compatible fonts installed for Calibri, Cambria, Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New, so documents set in those keep their line breaks. A font that is not installed is replaced by the closest match, and lines can then wrap in slightly different places. Worth a look on the result screen before you download. The blog post on why fonts change when Word becomes a PDF covers the causes in more depth.

Common questions

Do I need Microsoft Word installed?

No. The conversion runs on our server, so it works from a phone, a Chromebook or any computer with a browser.

Will my margins change?

Not unless you ask for it. Normal leaves the document's own margins as they are; Wide, Narrow and None replace them with 1 inch, a quarter inch or no margin at all.

Can I convert a password-protected Word document?

No. A document that needs a password to open cannot be converted. Remove the password in Word, then upload it again.

Can I convert several documents into one PDF?

Convert them one at a time, then combine the PDFs with Merge PDF in whatever order you need.

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