How to Convert Word to PDF

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format that the Adobe Corporation developed. It is used to easily transfer documents via the Internet.

PDF files are protected from changes and retain a presentation’s exact elements, thereby avoiding problems like missing fonts or broken layouts. PDF files can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader, an easily downloadable application for Windows and Mac OS X. A number of equivalents are available on Linux as well.

Converting MS Word Documents to PDF

Sending a uniform file to many recipients, transferring files from one OS to another, and having a presentation printed out in computer shops are just few of the many reasons that users convert their files to PDF. There are many applications that view and convert Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to PDF. These include Adobe Acrobat, OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Word to PDF Converter V3.0, among others.

There are also sites like doc2pdf that offer easy Word-to-PDF conversion without downloading any program. Upload the file to be converted to PDF format, and it will be within minutes.

Converting MS Word Documents to PDF with a Document Converter

If you have a document converter installed converting MS Word files to PDF is just a matter of choosing the document converter as the printer. The document converter can be set as the default printer by going to Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes. In the following window, right click the document converter then choose Set As Default.

If there is another printer attached, choose the document converter from the Print window pop-up. To do this, follow the steps below:

How to Select Document Converter as a Non-Default Printer

1. Open the document in Word.
2. Choose File then Print.
3. Choose the document converter (Adobe PDF printer or Universal Document Converter).
4. If using Adobe PDF printer, just click OK, specify the filename and PDF file location, then Save it. If using the Universal Document Converter, click Properties then choose Document to PDF, Color, Multi-page in the scroll bar. Click OK then Print.

Converting MS Word Documents to PDF with OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice

OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice are both free office suites which offer a built-in ability to export a currently opened document to PDF. They are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. To convert an MS Word document to PDF just follow these simple steps:

1. Launch LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org, click the “Open” button, navigate to your MS Word document, and open it.
2. Go to “File”, and then “Export as PDF”.
3. Review the options on the PDF Options dialog that appears. You usually don’t have to change anything unless you have special requirements, in which case options should be self-explanatory. To proceed with the conversion just click “Export”, select the location to save the new PDF file to, and “Save”.

Converting MS Word Documents to PDF on Mac OSX

Converting documents to PDF in Mac OS X is almost the same as converting it in Windows. However, a document converter is not necessary for converting MS Word documents to PDF on Mac OSX. Follow the steps below to convert a word file to PDF on Mac OSX.

1. Open the word file in the text editor.
2. Click File then Print.
3. In the Print window, click the PDF button at the bottom-left then select the “Save as PDF…” option.
4. Choose the location, rename the PDF file, then click Save.

Video: How to Convert Word to PDF