Saving a Microsoft Word document as a PDF can be a great way to ensure that your document looks exactly the same no matter who’s viewing it and to ensure that your document can be viewed by as many computer users as possible (thanks to the ubiquity of Adobe Reader).
To export your Word document to PDF format, just follow the instructions for your version of Word:
Word 2010
- Click the “File” tab in the top-left corner of the window
- Click “Save As”
- From the “Save as type” dropdown, select “PDF”
- You can leave the default settings as-is or customize them as desired.
You can also click the “Options” button to access advanced settings.
- Click “Save”
Word 2007
Before you begin, you’ll need to check whether your installation of Office 2007 supports exporting PDFs. Just follow these steps:
- Open Word and click the Office orb in the top-left corner of the window
- Click the “Word Options” button in the bottom-right corner of the Office menu
- Click the “Resources” button on the left of the Word Options window
- Under the “About Microsoft Office Word 2007” section, look for the letters “SP” followed by a number. This indicates which service pack you have. If you see “SP2” or “SP” followed by a number greater than 2, then your installation can export PDFs. Otherwise, you’ll need to download Service Pack 2. If Service Pack 2 isn’t an option for you for some reason (e.g. incompatibility with custom corporate add-ins), you can also use Microsoft’s Save as PDF/XPS Add-in to add PDF functionality to older versions of Office 2007.
Once you’ve confirmed your Office 2007 installation can export PDFs, proceed with these instructions:
- Click the Office orb in the top-left of the window
- Point to “Save As”
- Click “PDF or XPS”
- Confirm that “PDF” is selected in the “Save as type” dropdown. If not, select it.
- You can leave the default settings as-is or customize them as desired. You can also click the “Options” button to access advanced settings.
- Click “Publish”
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Wow! Thanks so much! This was SOOO helpful, you’ve no idea. I was beginning to worry ’cause I wiped my computer to upgrade to 7 and when the Save as PDF option didn’t appear in Word, I searched Microsoft and told me I had to buy Acrobat? Thanks a lot!
My issue is that the Word Comments and margin correctins (using Track Changes) no longer show up when I “Save as PDF”.
They used to, but then a couple weeks ago, stopped working. Or rather, they work sometimes adn not other times. I have checked the Word options and the radio button for “save document with markup” is still checked”.
HELP! It is essential that I be able to save the comments to pdf!
@Randy: Is your Word document set to “final showing markup” mode (which is under the Review tab in Word 2007/2010) before you save to PDF? (Also, which version of Word are you using?)
Thanks for the site. A lot of my online students do not know about PDF and this site will help them a lot.
when I save a word 2010 doc I get the message ‘could not open file. No program is associates with this type of file’ Obviously I have done something silly at some stage – but I don’t know how to un-do it – can you helpe me out?
Sorry I should have said when I save a word doc as PDF – I get the message could not open file. No program is associates with this type of file’ –
thank you, it was very helpful………
THANK YOU! I looked all over and it was a mess. This really and simply got it done
bob
I don’t have word 2007 – 2010.
Is there any other way?
Thank you.
There’s an online tool
http://topdf.com