PDF tool
Word to PDF
Turn a Word document into a PDF that keeps the original layout.
This converts a Word document to PDF by opening it, laying it out and printing it to PDF, the same way an office application does. Nothing in the document is rewritten: the text, the pagination and the tables you see in the PDF are the ones in the file you sent.
What the PDF keeps
Because the document is laid out by an office engine rather than rebuilt from its text, these survive the conversion the way they appear in Word: page breaks and page count, headers, footers and page numbers, margins and page size, tables and their borders, images at their position on the page, charts, columns, footnotes and endnotes, heading levels, and the document’s own fonts wherever the server has them installed. The text in the PDF is real text, so it can be selected, searched and copied.
What can still change
A converter is faithful, not identical, and it is worth knowing the difference before you rely on the output. A font the server does not have is substituted, which keeps the layout and changes the letterforms. Tracked changes and comments are not carried over. Form fields become ordinary content, so a fillable Word form produces a static PDF. Macros are never run, and embedded objects that need Word itself to draw them may come out as placeholders. A password-protected document has to be unlocked before it can be converted.
If a document must match a fixed house style down to the millimetre, compare the PDF against the original before sending it on. For an essay, a CV, a letter or a set of notes, the output is the document as it looks in Word.
What happens to the file
The document is uploaded to this server, converted there by LibreOffice, and the PDF is handed back as a download. The upload and the PDF are deleted as soon as the download has been delivered, and anything a crash leaves behind is swept within thirty minutes. No person reads the document, and it is never added to your account, your history or any index.
A long document is converted by a background worker rather than inside your browser tab, so a hundred-page file does not time out halfway through and the page stays responsive while the counter runs.
Further reading: Read the full guide: Word to PDF
Common questions
Is my document uploaded?
No. The .docx is read in this page and laid out with your browser's own print engine, so the file is never uploaded and there is no copy of it anywhere but your device. Nothing is sent, so there is nothing to delete afterwards.
What file types can I convert?
Word documents and templates — .docx, .doc, .docm, .dotx and .dotm — plus .odt and .rtf. The output is PDF. It is a document converter rather than a Microsoft Word one, so anything LibreOffice can open, it can convert.
How long does it take?
Usually a few seconds, and a long document can take a couple of minutes. Conversion runs as a background job, so the page keeps showing progress rather than appearing to hang — and a conversion that takes longer than 90 seconds is treated as failed and cleaned up.
Will the layout come out exactly right?
Closely, but not identically. Pagination can shift if the document uses fonts that are not installed on the server, since the substitute has different metrics. Turn on "embed fonts" in Word before uploading if your document depends on unusual typefaces.
Is there a size limit?
20 MB. Anything larger is refused before upload rather than failing halfway through, so you find out immediately rather than after waiting.