You've just finished a resume, a proposal or a report in Word and need to send it somewhere it won't be edited or reflow — a PDF is the safe, universal format for that. Word to PDF turns an editable .docx into a PDF anyone can open, without Word installed and without sending the file to a server.
The converter keeps the structure of your document: headings, paragraphs, bold and italic text, lists, tables, images and links. It doesn't copy the visual design, such as your fonts, colors, centered text, headers and footers. For a letterhead or a heavily designed layout, Word's own "Save as PDF" will look closer to the original. If you're going the other way, from PDF to an editable file, see the PDF to Word guide.
Step-by-step
- Open the Word to PDF tool, or click the "Word to PDF" card on the home page.
- Click the drop zone or drag in your .docx file. The tool reads the modern .docx format; save an old .doc file as .docx in Word first.
- Click "Process now." mammoth.js reads the document's structure in your browser, and pdf-lib lays it out on pages with the size and margins set in your document.
- If the document contains text outside the basic Latin alphabet, such as Chinese, Arabic or Cyrillic, the tool first downloads a matching font. This happens once; the browser keeps it for later conversions.
- Your browser downloads a PDF with the same name as your document. The text in it is real text: you can select it, search it and copy it.
- Open the PDF and check tables, images and page breaks before sending it.
Common mistakes
- Expecting an exact copy of the design. Fonts, colors, alignment, headers and footers aren't carried over. Use Word's own export when the look has to match exactly.
- Uploading a .doc or .odt file. Only .docx is supported. Open the file in Word or LibreOffice and save it as .docx.
- Converting a password-protected document. The tool can't open it. Remove the password in Word, convert, and protect the PDF afterward with Protect PDF.
- Relying on manual page breaks. They aren't kept, so a section you started on a new page may begin right after the previous one.
- Using EMF or WMF drawings. Browsers can't read those formats, so those images are left out. Save them as PNG or JPG in the document first.
FAQ
Which parts of my Word document are kept in the PDF?
Headings, paragraphs, bold, italic, underline and strikethrough, superscript and subscript, bulleted and numbered lists (including nested ones), tables, images and clickable links. The page size, margins and base font size are read from your document too.
What isn't kept?
Your fonts and colors (the PDF uses a clean sans-serif font), text alignment such as centered or justified text, headers and footers, text boxes, columns, manual page breaks, comments, charts and shapes. Footnotes are moved to the end of the document. Images in EMF or WMF format are left out, and the status message tells you how many.
Does it work with Chinese, Arabic or other alphabets?
Yes. When the document contains text outside the basic Latin alphabet, the tool downloads a matching font on demand and embeds only the characters you use. Arabic paragraphs are laid out right to left. The Chinese font is about 8 MB, so the first conversion of a Chinese document takes longer; later ones reuse the cached font.
Is my document uploaded to a server?
No. mammoth.js reads the .docx and pdf-lib builds the PDF, both inside your browser tab. The only downloads are the libraries and, when needed, a font file; your document never leaves your device.
Checklist
- The file is a .docx without a password
- Headings are set with Word's heading styles, so they come out as headings
- Images are PNG or JPG, not EMF or WMF
- The PDF was opened and its tables, images and page breaks checked
- Design-critical documents were exported from Word instead