How to convert a Word document to PDF

Convert the document

1. 1Open Word to PDF and choose your file. On a phone it is usually in your Downloads or Files app, or in the chat where someone sent it to you.
2. 2Wait a few seconds while it is sent and converted. On a slow connection, the progress shows how much has been sent.
3. 3The PDF opens with its pages down the side (on a phone, open them with the button at the left of the toolbar) and in full in the middle. Check that it looks right.
4. 4Tap Download. The PDF keeps your document’s name, and you can rename it by tapping the name at the top.

What happens to your file

This is the one tool in PDF Tools that sends your file away. Converting Word documents faithfully takes a full office suite, far too heavy to run in a browser, so the file goes to our server over an encrypted connection.

• It is converted in memory and never written to disk.
• It is deleted as soon as the PDF comes back to you. We keep no copy and never look at it.
• Nothing about it is logged: not its name, not its contents.

Everything after that happens on your device again: signing, filling in, reordering pages and downloading. If you add a Word file to a document you are already working on, PDF Tools asks before sending it.

Will it look the same?

Usually, yes. Letters, CVs, reports and most forms come out as they look in Word: text, headings, tables, images, headers, footers and page breaks all carry over. The conversion is done with LibreOffice, a free office suite, not Microsoft Word itself. The fonts Word uses most (Calibri, Cambria, Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New) are replaced by look-alikes with the same letter widths, so lines usually break in the same places.

Complex layouts are where differences show. Text boxes, charts, very tight tables and less common fonts can shift a little, for example a word wrapping onto the next line in a narrow table cell. If the layout matters, such as a form with boxes to fill in, look over every page before you send it.

Sign it or fill it in next

The PDF stays open after converting, so you can carry on. Switch to Sign to add your signature, or to Fill to type into it. Use Add files to add pages from other PDFs, photos or Word documents, then Download when it is ready.