A PDF of a Word document looks the same everywhere: on a phone, on a Mac without Word, when printed at a copy shop or opened by an application form that only takes PDFs. Converting keeps the pages as they are laid out and embeds the fonts, so nothing shifts on the other side.
How to convert Word to PDF
- Add the
.docxor.docfile above, or several, or a ZIP of folders full of them. - Keep Convert to: PDF and press Convert.
- Download the PDF. With several files you get one ZIP with the same folders, and a report.
Word files of every kind are taken: .docx and .docm (the macros are never run), .doc from
Word 97 to 2003, templates (.dotx) and RTF. The format is read from the file itself, so a
.doc that is really an RTF file is converted just the same.
What the PDF keeps
- Page layout: page size, margins, headers and footers, page numbers, columns, tables, footnotes and pictures.
- Text as text: it can be searched, selected and copied in the PDF.
- Fonts: embedded, so the PDF looks the same on every device.
For long-term archives, tick Archival PDF (PDF/A-2b) under More options.
Fonts: the one thing to check
The conversion runs without Microsoft Word, so fonts that come with Word but aren't installed here are replaced. Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, Calibri and Cambria get replacements with exactly the same letter widths, so every line and page breaks where it did in Word. Other fonts, such as Arial Black, Garamond or Century Gothic, get a replacement with other widths: a line can wrap differently and a document can end up a page longer or shorter. The report lists every font of every file and marks the files worth a second look.
Password-protected documents
A document that needs a password to open can't be converted here (passwords are not asked for). Open it in Word, remove the password under File > Info > Protect Document, save and upload again.
More about what this tool reads and writes: Document Converter.