Guide
How to convert a Word document to PDF
Almost every online application, scholarship form and job posting asks for a PDF, and what you have is a .docx. Converting it here happens on your own device: the document is read in your browser and written back out as a PDF with real, selectable text. Nothing is uploaded, which matters when the document is a resume, a medical record or a signed letter.
Steps
Choose your Word file
Open Word to PDF and click to choose a .docx file. The browser reads it straight from your device. If your file ends in .doc rather than .docx, the tool says so and stops — that older format is a different thing entirely and cannot be read here. Open it in Word or Google Docs and save it again as .docx first.
Read the list of what comes across
Above the button is a two-column list: what the conversion keeps and what it drops. It is there before you convert rather than after, because that answer decides whether this is the right tool for your document at all. A plain report converts well. A certificate with a letterhead and a background image does not.
Leave the page size alone, unless a form insists
The converter uses the page size, orientation and margins the document itself declares, so a document written for Legal paper stays on Legal paper and your margins come across as you set them. The buttons are there for when something else is required: pick A4, Letter or Legal to override, and tick "Set my own margins" only if you need to. Changing either re-flows the document, so decide before you convert rather than afterwards.
Convert, then open the result before you send it
The progress bar moves as the document is laid out and each line is drawn. If anything could not be carried across, it is listed under the button — that is not an error, it is the converter telling you which parts it left behind. Download the PDF and open it. Check the page breaks, and check the parts the list warned you about, because a form rejecting your file is a slower way to find out.
Headers, footers, page numbers and multi-column sections are carried, and so are text boxes and shapes, so a template-built resume with a letterhead comes across. What this cannot carry is comments, and a page size, orientation or margin that changes partway through — the last one in the document is used throughout. Where a font is not available the text is set in a standard face of the same kind and each line is fitted to the width it had, so a heading that was one line stays one line. If your document depends on the parts that are dropped, save the PDF from Word itself.
Common questions
How close to Word does it look?
Close, because the converter reads the Word file itself — the same XML Word writes — so font sizes, colours, alignment, indents, spacing, tables, pictures and your page margins all come across as set. Text boxes and shapes come across too, which matters because a resume or flyer built from a Word template keeps most of its words in them, and so do headers, footers, page numbers and multi-column sections. Two things can still differ. A document whose page size, orientation or margins change partway through is drawn with the last of those settings throughout. And the typeface is only exactly yours if you tick "Match the fonts exactly", which lets the page use the fonts installed on your device; otherwise a standard face of the same kind stands in and each line is fitted to the width it had.
Can I convert a .doc file?
No. The .doc format is the old binary Word format, and no browser can read it. Open it in Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice or the free Word Online, save it as .docx, and convert that. The tool checks the extension and tells you this rather than failing halfway through.
Will the text in the PDF still be selectable?
Yes. The output is real text, not a picture of the document, so it can be selected, copied and searched, and a screen reader can read it. That is why the conversion draws every line rather than taking a screenshot of the page.
Do my header, footer and page numbers come across?
Yes. Each header and footer is read from its own part of the Word file and painted on every page it belongs to, including a different first page and different left and right pages where the document asks for them. Page numbers are counted for the PDF rather than copied out of the file, so "Page 3 of 12" says 3 on the third page — in Roman numerals or letters if that is how the field was set. A field that is not a page number, such as a table of contents or a cross-reference, keeps the value Word last calculated instead.
Why does the PDF have a different number of pages than Word showed?
Page breaks are recalculated here, and if the document uses a font your browser cannot hand over, the line breaks are measured in a substitute — so a paragraph sitting just under a page boundary in Word can spill onto an extra page. Ticking "Match the fonts exactly" removes that difference where the font is installed. Explicit page breaks you inserted in Word are always honoured, and nothing is ever lost when the count differs: the content is all there, arranged differently.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole conversion runs in your browser tab, and you can prove it: open your browser network tab, convert a document, and watch that nothing is sent. There is also no server here to send it to — this site is static files.