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Word to PDF

Save a Word file (DOCX) as a PDF, for sending or printing. The file stays on your device.

Simple documents only, not a copy of the Word layoutThe PDF contains the text of your Word file: paragraphs, headings, bulleted and numbered lists and the page breaks. Everything is set in one print font (Helvetica) on A4 with fixed margins. Your fonts, colors, bold and italics, tables, images, columns, headers and footers, footnotes and text boxes do not come along; the tool counts what is left out and tells you. For a letter, a paper or minutes, that is often enough. If the PDF has to look exactly like it does in Word, use “Save as” there and choose PDF: every Word and every LibreOffice can do that, entirely without the internet.

Choose a Word file

or just drag it here.

.DOCX ONLY · STAYS ON YOUR DEVICE

Related: PDF text as a Word file · PDF table to CSV · Clean up Word files

Your file never leaves this device. The PDF is created in your browser and is not stored anywhere.

How it works
  1. 01Choose a Word file (.docx) or drag it into the field. The old .doc format does not work: save it as .docx in Word or LibreOffice first.
  2. 02The tool reads the file and builds the PDF right away. Whatever does not come along (tables, images) is named in a note above the result.
  3. 03Tap “Save as PDF”. The file is named like your Word file, just ending in .pdf.

What becomes of the Word file. A .docx is a packed bundle of XML parts. The tool reads the paragraphs with their styles from it: headings of levels 1 to 6 (also via the outline level of customized styles), bulleted and numbered lists with their level and numbering, manual page breaks. It deliberately reads no more than that. In the PDF, headings become larger and bold, lists get an indent and their marker, numbered lists count per level. The PDF is written with the pdf-lib library in your browser.

What is left out. Tables and images are counted and left out, the note names the number. Headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, comments and text boxes live in separate parts of the file and do not appear in the PDF. Fonts, colors, bold and italics in body text, alignment and spacing of your document are not carried over: the fixed print font applies. Tracked changes come along as if they were accepted.

Characters. The print font knows the Western European characters. Letters with unfamiliar accents are reduced to their base form, everything else becomes a question mark; the note names the affected characters in both cases. Emoji and Asian scripts are not possible in a PDF from this tool.

Limits of the file. Password-protected Word files do not work: remove the password in Word and save again. Very large documents are rejected, and after more than 1,000 PDF pages the tool stops and says so. Files from clean sources (Word, LibreOffice, Google Docs) work; exotic producers may store parts differently, and text there goes missing.