Guide
How to save a Word document as a PDF
Drop the document on Anyfile’s Word to PDF page and the PDF downloads a moment later, with its pages, headers, footers, tables and pictures. If you have Word, saving as PDF there is just as quick and keeps the document’s own fonts.
Step by step
Open Word to PDF
Go to Word to PDF. It takes .docx, .doc, .odt and .rtf files, and works in any current browser.
Drop the document
Drag it onto the drop card, or click Choose files. The document is laid out page by page in your browser, as the Word editor shows it, then drawn into a PDF.
Find the PDF in Downloads
When the card says Converted to PDF, it’s in your Downloads folder under the document’s name. Several documents dropped together come back as one ZIP of PDFs.
Change something first, if you need to
Drop it on the Word editor instead and choose Edit file. Fix what you need, open the arrow next to Download, choose PDF and press Download.
The text in the PDF is real text: it can be selected, searched and copied, and links stay clickable. Words in scripts the PDF fonts don’t have, such as Chinese, Arabic or emoji, are drawn as sharp pictures of themselves so nothing goes missing.
Fonts are the honest difference. Anyfile doesn’t embed your document’s own fonts: sans-serif text is set in Liberation Sans, serif text in Times and monospaced text in Courier, so a document in Calibri or Garamond looks slightly different. Lines can break in slightly different places from Word’s, and text boxes, shapes, charts and comments don’t come across yet.
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file and makes the new one on your device. See how it works, and how to check.
Other ways to do it
In Word. File › Save As with PDF as the format; on Windows, File › Export › Create PDF/XPS does the same. Word embeds the fonts it used, so the PDF matches the document exactly.
Google Docs and Pages. In Google Docs, open the file from Drive, then File › Download › PDF Document. In Pages on a Mac, open it, then File › Export To › PDF. Both lay the document out themselves, so they can differ from Word too.
Printing to PDF. Any app that opens the document can print it to a PDF: Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows, or PDF › Save as PDF in the print dialog on a Mac.
When Anyfile is quicker
When you don’t have Word, or you’re on a Chromebook, a phone or someone else’s computer, the converter is the quickest route: no install, no account, no upload. When exact fonts matter, as in a CV, a designed report or a form someone will compare with the original, use Word’s own Save as PDF.
Questions
Can I convert an old .doc file?
Yes. Word 97–2003 documents convert the same way as .docx ones.
Can people select the text in the PDF?
Yes. It’s real text, not a picture of the page, so it can be searched, selected and copied.
Why does the font look different?
The PDF uses Liberation Sans, Times or Courier in place of the document’s own fonts. For an exact match, save as PDF from Word itself.
Is my document uploaded?
No. The PDF is made in your browser, on your device, and the document never leaves it.