How to use word pdf

Excel for Microsoft 365 Word for Microsoft 365 Access for Microsoft 365 Project Online Desktop Client Publisher for Microsoft 365 Word for the web OneNote for the web PowerPoint for the web Excel 2021 Word 2021 Access 2021 Project Professional 2021 Project Standard 2021 Publisher 2021 OneNote 2021 Excel 2019 Word 2019 Access 2019 Project Professional 2019 Project Standard 2019 Publisher 2019 Excel 2016 Word 2016 Access 2016 OneNote 2016 Project Professional 2016 Project Standard 2016 Publisher 2016 Office 2016 for Mac Excel 2013 Word 2013 Access 2013 OneNote 2013 Project Professional 2013 Project Standard 2013 Publisher 2013 Project Online Excel 2010 Word 2010 Access 2010 OneNote 2010 Project 2010 Project Standard 2010 Publisher 2010 Office 2010 Excel Starter 2010 More…Less

You can use the Office programs to save or convert your files to PDFs so that you can share them or print them using commercial printers. And you won’t need any other software or add-ins.

Use PDF format when you want a file that:

Looks the same on most computers.
Has a smaller file size.
Complies with an industry format.

Examples include resumes, legal documents, newsletters, files that are intended to be read (not edited) and printed, and files that are intended for professional printing.

Important: Many programs, including Microsoft Word, have the ability to open and edit PDF files. Simply sharing something as a PDF is not sufficient to guarantee the recipient can’t edit the file.

To see step-by-step instructions, select an Office program from the drop-down list.

Open the table or report you want to publish as a PDF.
On the External Data tab, in the Export group, select PDF or XPS.
In the File Name field, type or select a name for the document.
In the Save as type list, select PDF (*.pdf) .
- If the document requires high print quality, select Standard (publishing online and printing) .
- If file size is more important than print quality, select Minimum size (publishing online).
Select Options to set the page to be printed, to choose whether markup should be printed, and to select output options. Select OK .
Select Publish.

Note: You can’t save Power View sheets as PDF files.

Select the File tab.
Select Save As .
To see the Save As dialog box in Excel 2013 or Excel 2016, you have to choose a location and folder.
In the File Name box, enter a name for the file, if you haven’t already.
In the Save as type list, select PDF (*.pdf) .
- If you want the file to open in the selected format after saving, select the Open file after publishing check box .
- If the document requires high print quality, select Standard (publishing online and printing) .
- If file size is more important than print quality, select Minimum size (publishing online) .
Select Options to set the page to be printed, to choose whether markup should be printed, and to select output options. For more information on the Options dialog box in Excel, see More about PDF options . Select OK when finished.
Select Save .

Select the File tab.
Select Export .
Under Export Current , select what part of the notebook you want to save as PDF.
Under Select Format , select PDF (*.pdf) , and then select Export .
In the Save As dialog box, in the File Name field, enter a name for the notebook.
Select Save .

Select the File tab.
Select Save As .
To see the Save As dialog box in PowerPoint 2013 or PowerPoint 2016 , you have to choose a location and folder.
In the File Name box, enter a name for the file, if you haven’t already.
In the Save as type list, select PDF (*.pdf) .
- If you want the file to open in the selected format after saving, select the Open file after publishing check box.
- If the document requires high print quality, select Standard (publishing online and printing) .
- If the file size is more important than print quality, select Minimum size (publishing online) .
Select Options to set the page to be printed, to choose whether markup should be printed, and to select output options. Select OK when finished.
Select Save .

On the File tab, choose Save As .
To see the Save As dialog box in Project 2013 or Project 2016, you have to choose a location and folder.
In the File Name box, enter a name for the file, if you haven’t already.
In the Save as type list, select PDF Files (*.pdf) or XPS Files (*.xps) , and then choose Save .
In the Document Export Options dialog box, select a Publish Range , whether to Include Non-printing Information , and ISO 19500-1 compliance (PDF only).

Formatting tips

Project doesn’t support every PDF or XPS formatting feature, but you can still use some print options to change the look of the final doc.

Choose File > Print , and then change any of these options:

Dates
Orientation
Paper Size
Page Setup

In the Page Setup dialog box, you can change options on these tabs:

Margins
Legend
View

Select the File tab.
Select Save As .
To see the Save As dialog box in Publisher 2013 or Publisher 2016, you have to choose a location and folder.
In the File Name box, enter a name for the file, if you haven’t already.
In the Save as type list, select PDF (*.pdf) .
If you want to change how the document is optimized, select Change . (Select Options in Publisher 2013 or Publisher 2016.)
- Make any changes you want to the picture resolution and non-printing information.
- Select Print Options to make changes to the printing options for the document.
- Select OK when finished.
If you want the file to open in the selected format after saving, select the Open file after publishing check box.
Select Save .

Select the File tab.
Select Save As .
To see the Save As dialog box in Visio 2013 or Visio 2016, you have to choose a location and folder.
In the File Name box, enter a name for the file, if you haven’t already.
In the Save as type list, select PDF (*.pdf) .
- If you want the file to open in the selected format after saving, select the Automatically view file after saving check box.
- If the document requires high print quality, select Standard (publishing online and printing) .
- If file size is more important than print quality, select Minimum size (publishing online) .
Select Options to set the page to be printed, to choose whether markup should be printed, and to select output options. Select OK .
Select Save .

If the file was previously saved, select File > Save a Copy.
If the file is unsaved, select File > Save As.
Select Browse to choose the location on your computer where you want to save the file.
In the drop-down list, select PDF.
Select Save.

Select More Options > Options to customize your PDF.

To make a PDF file from only some of the pages in your document, choose an option under Page range.
To include tracked changes in the PDF, under Publish what, select Document showing markup. Otherwise, make sure Document is selected.
To create a set of bookmarks in the PDF file, select Create bookmarks using. Then, choose Headings or, if you added bookmarks to your document, Word Bookmarks.
If you want to include document properties in the PDF, make sure Document properties is selected.
To make the document easier for screen-reading software to read, select Document structure tags for accessibility.
ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A) This option outputs the PDF document as version 1.7 PDF, which is an archiving standard. PDF/A helps to insure that a document will look the same when it’s opened later on a different computer.
Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded If fonts can’t be embedded into the document, the PDF uses bitmap images of the text so that the PDF looks the same as the original document. If this option isn’t selected and the file uses a font that can’t be embedded, then the PDF reader might substitute another font.
Encrypt the document with a password To restrict access so only people with the password can open the PDF, select this option. When you select OK, Word opens the Encrypt PDF Document box, where you can type and re-enter a password.

Open and copy content from a PDF with Word

You can copy any content you want from a PDF by opening it in Word.

Go to File > Open and browse to the PDF file. Word opens the PDF content in a new file. You can copy any content you want from it, including images and diagrams.

To save your file as a PDF in Office for Mac, follow these easy steps:

Select File.
Choose Save As.
Select File Format at the bottom of the window.
Choose PDF from the list of available file formats.
Give your file a name, if it doesn’t already have one, then select Export.

Note: When using Best for printing, the hyperlinks may not convert correctly. This is a known issue in Word for Mac.

Important:

When using Online Service , only font that Microsoft has the legal rights to can be used. If the documentation contains custom font, it will be substituted and may cause problems. This can be avoided by embedding the fonts into the document.
Learn more about embedding fonts by visiting:
Benefits of embedding custom fonts
Some of your fonts can’t be saved with the presentation

You can use Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote for the Web to convert your doc into a PDF.

Select File > Print > Print (in PowerPoint you will select one of three formats).
In the dropdown menu under Printer , select Save as PDF and then select Save.
Then in the Explorer menu that opens you can name the PDF and choose where to save it and then select Save.

This will generate a basic PDF that preserves the layout and format of your original document.

If you need more control over the options for your PDF, such as adding bookmarks, use the desktop app to convert your doc to a PDF. Select Open in Desktop App in the toolbar of PowerPoint and OneNote to start using the desktop app, and in Word select the Editing dropdown first and then select Open in Desktop App .

If you don’t own the desktop app, you can try or buy Microsoft 365.

To export your Word document or Excel workbook to PDF format on iOS tap the File button at the top left, choose Export and then PDF.

Portable Document Format (PDF) preserves document formatting and enables file sharing. When the PDF format file is viewed online or printed, it retains the format that you intended. The PDF format is also useful for documents that will be reproduced using commercial printing methods. PDF is accepted as a valid format by many agencies and organizations, and viewers are available on a wider variety of platforms than XPS.

XML Paper Specification (XPS) is an electronic file format that preserves document formatting and enables file sharing. The XPS format ensures that when the file is viewed online or printed, it retains exactly the format that you intended, and that data in the file cannot be easily changed.

Important: Most modern web browsers can open and display a PDF file. If you have an older operating system, however, you may need a PDF reader installed on your device such as the Acrobat Reader, available from Adobe Systems.

Things You Should Know

In the latest versions of Word, including Word 2021, 2019, 2016, and 2013, you can open a PDF and edit the text.
In Word 2010 and earlier, you’ll need to use a 3rd party PDF to Word converter to create a Word document.
One of the best PDF to Word converters is Adobe Acrobat’s free online tool.

1
Open Microsoft Word on your PC or Mac. This method uses Word to convert the PDF into a Word document.
- If you’re using Windows, you’ll find Microsoft Word in the Start menu. On a Mac, it’ll be in your Applications folder.
- This method will work in any modern version of Word, beginning with Word 2013 through Microsoft Office 365.
2

Click Open. This is an option in the left menu. A new page with a list of files will appear.

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3

Click a file source. If the PDF file is on your computer, click Computer. If the PDF file is on a flash drive or other external drive, click on that drive.
4
Select the PDF document. Find and open the PDF file from its location on your computer.
- In later versions of Word, the file navigation is done within the Word app rather than a file dialog window. Clicking the PDF will immediately open it.
5
Click OK or Open in the dialog box. After opening a PDF, you will be notified that the process may take a while to complete. Depending on the size of the PDF file and the number of graphics in the File, the process will take longer.
- Be aware that if you have many images in the PDF, there is a chance that Word will not be able to properly format the document. It will still open, but may not look identical.
6
Enable editing. If you downloaded the file from the web, you may be notified that editing is not enabled. This is a security measure that Word takes to prevent your computer from being infected by a virus.
- If you trust the source, click File in the upper-left corner of the window, then click Enable Editing in the yellow box.
7
Edit the document. You can start editing the document just like you would any other Word document. You’re ready to cross out some words or remove blank pages.
- When you’re done, you can export the document as a PDF:
  - Click the File tab.
  - Click Export in the left menu.
  - Click Create PDF/XPS Document.

1
2

Click Convert. It’s in the menu bar at the top of the page.
3

Click PDF to Word. It has a blue page icon.
4
Upload the file to the converter. To do so:
- Click Add a file from your device.
- Select the PDF and click Open.
5
Click Export to DOCX. This will convert the PDF file to a Word document. It will open in the online editor.
- You can click the drop down menu under «Export to» to change the file type to .doc or .rtf.
6
Download the converted file. To do so:
- Click the Download file button. It’s the downward arrow icon in the top right of the online editor menu.
- Choose a file location and click Save.
7

Double-click the downloaded file to open it. This will open the converted Word document in Microsoft Word. You’re done!

1
Download Adobe Acrobat reader. Adobe Acrobat costs money, but you can get around this by downloading a free trial. You can also use Adobe’s free online converter using the above method.
- Get Adobe Acrobat reader at https://www.adobe.com/acrobat.html. Adobe created the PDF so you can get the best PDF tools from it.^[1]
- You will need to enter in some information such as your name and email. Be sure to uncheck the option which notifies you through email about new Adobe products and information.
- Alternatively, there may be an extension that you can use within Microsoft Word that would allow you to edit PDF.^[2]
2
Open Acrobat Reader. The process is slightly different depending on if you are Mac or PC user.
- For PC users:Click the ⊞ Win key, type «Acrobat Reader,» then press ↵ Enter.
- For Mac users:Open Finder from your dashboard, search for «Acrobat Reader» in the search box, then open the program.
3
Upload a document. To convert a PDF document, you will first need to open a PDF document in Acrobat Reader.
- Click the File tab in Adobe Acrobat.
- Click Open and select the PDF.
4
Convert the document. This will create a Word document from your PDF document.
- Click the «Export PDF» button on the right side of the window.
- Choose your version of Word,
- Click the Export button.
- Name the converted file and select DOC or DOCX in the file options.
- Click Save. You’re done!
5

Open your new Word document. Find and open the newly created word document from wherever you decided to save it.

Add New Question

Question

Can I convert a scanned PDF to a Word document for editing?

This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

In the most recent versions of Word, yes. Simply open the file in Word and click “OK” on the dialogue box stating that the document will be converted to Word format. Keep in mind that there might be some formatting or transcription errors in the new document that you will have to fix manually.
Question

How do I convert a PDF to Word without Acrobat?

This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

In the most recent version of Word, you can do this directly from Word itself. Simply open the PDF file in Word and confirm that you’d like to convert it. Otherwise, there are a variety of third-party PDF to Word converters that you can download or use online.
Question

Why can’t I open a PDF in Word?

This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

It’s possible you’re using an older version of Word that doesn’t support PDF files. This feature isn’t available in any version of Word before Word 2013.

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Make sure you convert to the right Word format for your computer. Older Word files (before 2007) are generally in DOC format, whereas the newer ones are in DOCX.

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To convert a Microsoft Word Document to a PDF, open the document in Microsoft Word, then go to File > Save As and select PDF from the available formats. You can also use Google Drive or LibreOffice to convert a Word Document to a PDF.

PDFs are handy for distributing documents so that they’re seen the same way by all parties. Typically, you’ll create documents using another app and then convert them to PDF. Here’s how to convert a Microsoft Word document to PDF.

If you have the desktop version of Microsoft Word installed on your Windows PC or Mac, the easiest way to convert your document to PDF is right in Word itself.

Open the document you want to convert and then click the “File” tab.

On the backstage screen, select “Save As” from the list on the left.

Next, from the Save As screen, select where you would like the PDF to be saved (OneDrive, This PC, a particular folder, or wherever).

Click the dropdown arrow on the right side of the “Save As Type” box and select “PDF (*.pdf)” from the dropdown menu.

If you want to, you can change the filename at this time. When you’re ready, click the “Save” button.

After saving the PDF, you’ll be returned to your Word document, and the new PDF will open automatically in your default PDF viewer.

If You Don’t Have Microsoft Word

If you don’t have Word, but need to convert a document someone sent you to PDF, you do have a few options:

Google Drive: You can upload a Word document to Google Drive, save it as a Google Document, and then convert it to PDF. This works well enough if you have a simple, mostly text Word document without much formatting (and if you already have a Google account).
A Conversion Website: There are a lot of sites out there that offer to convert Word documents to PDF for free. We recommend freepdfconvert.com. It’s a safe site, it works fast, and it does a pretty good job on Word documents with even a modest amount of formatting. And it really is free if you just need to convert the occasional Word document to PDF. A paid subscription gets you additional features like unlimited conversions (multiple documents at once), and the ability to convert more types of files.
LibreOffice: LibreOffice is a free, open-source office app that offers a lot of the same features as Microsoft Office. You can even open Microsoft Word documents, and convert them to PDF.

RELATED: How to Print to PDF on Any Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet

How to Import, Convert, & Edit PDFs in Word

One of the features included in later versions of Word—the copy of Word you get with Office 365 on a PC—is built-in support for importing PDFs and editing them in Word. You won’t be editing the original PDF though. Instead, Word converts the PDF to Word’s native format, turning the section headers to Word styles and more so you can easily edit and reuse the document.

To import your PDF into Word, just open it inside of Word or right-click on a PDF file in Explorer and select to open it in Word. You’ll see a warning that the converted document will not be exactly the same as the original. Click OK, and after a brief pause your PDF will open in Word.

Imported PDF document shown in Word, with the TOC misaligned.

Word does a great job importing PDF documents in some ways, but messes them up terribly in other ways. If the PDF you converted used fonts that are standard on PCs, your converted Word document may actually be quite similar to the original PDF; otherwise, you’ll likely have oversized headers, oddly spaced paragraphs, and more.

How to Fix Word Text Styling in Converted PDFs

That can be relatively easily fixed, though, since Word imports the PDF text sections using Word Styles. Select a messed-up section to see what style it’s using, then edit the style in Word and all similar sections will automatically update.

Similarly, Word will import headers and footers correctly—even recognizing when documents use different footers for opposite pages—so you can edit them once and the changes will show up across the entire document.

Edit the footers and headers of the PDF document the same as you would any other Word file.

When Word is Likely to Fail at Converting Your PDFs

While Word does a good job with imported PDFs filled with text and simple formatting, it tends to mess things up when you import PDF forms.

It won’t include any data you’ve saved in the form text fields, and will mess up spacing, lines, text boxes, and more in the import. For most purposes, you’d be better off recreating the form than importing it via Word.

PDF forms fare the worst in a Word import.

Converting PDF to Word Format Using Other Popular Apps

Word for Mac, iPad, and Word Online, along with older versions of Word on PCs, cannot open and edit PDFs. If you’d like to edit PDFs in any of them, you’ll first need to convert them to Word format, and then open the converted file in Word.

PDF to Word Conversion Tools: Acrobat, Google Drive, and PDFPen

If you have a copy of Adobe Acrobat (included with most Creative Suite and Creative Cloud subscriptions), you can use it to convert PDF documents to Word format on your Mac or PC. Its conversions are very high quality, and if your PDF document includes pictures with text, it will OCR the text so you can edit it as well. You may also be able to convert
PDF documents in Google Drive:

You can also use Acrobat Online to convert and OCR PDFs, although it’s not free. If you need the best PDF to Word conversion, though, the cost is worth it. If you’ve scanned a document and want to convert it to Word format, it’s one of the few tools with consistently usable results.

If you’re using a Mac and have a copy of PDFPen, it can export PDFs to Word as well, complete with OCR. It includes many of Acrobat’s great editing and export features, so it’s a good alternative option if you need to frequently export PDFs to Word.

Nitro PDFs to Word Format Conversion Tool

Another good option is a web app: Nitro. It’s perfect whether you have one-off conversion needs or perform PDF to Word conversions more frequently.

Nitro: another PDF to Word Conversion tool.

How to Use Nitro to Convert PDFs to Word Format

Just create an account, then upload the PDF you want to convert directly from your computer or Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive accounts. Then, click the Convert to Word button.

After a brief pause for it to convert the document, you can download it and open it in Word on your PC or Mac or in Word Online, or in a Word alternative such as Pages or Google Docs.

Nitro’s PDF conversion is quite nice.

How Useful is Nitro at Converting PDFs to Word Format?

Nitro’s PDF to word conversion isn’t as perfect as Acrobat’s, but it’s far better than the built-in conversion in Word. You’ll still have footers and heading styles brought over as in Word, but generally closer to the original document. There may be random font and spacing oddities, but overall, the converted document will be quite nice.

Forms are especially surprising, since Nitro converts them almost perfectly. You can quite easily get a Word document out of most forms this way and, with minimal editing, get them looking the same as the original document.

How to Turn Your Document Back Into a PDF

No matter which version of Word you use to edit your PDF, your finished document will be a Word file by default. If you want to save your edited document as a PDF again, it’s easy to do that as well.

On a PC, just click the File tab and select the Save As option, then choose PDF and save the file with the file name you want. Click the Save button. (Alternately, you could use the Print option and select Microsoft print to PDF as your printer.)

You can convert a Word document back to PDF format.

In Word Online, click the File option, choose Print, then save the PDF it creates to your computer instead of printing it. On a Mac, click File > Save As…, then in the Format drop-down select Download as PDF, and add the name you’d like.

Conclusion: You Can Change Your PDF to Word Format Quickly

PDF documents don’t have to be the impenetrable documents they seem at first. Word’s built-in PDF import tool makes it as simple to edit a PDF as with any other document. You won’t have the document fidelity PDFs are prided for, but you will be able to edit them without having to buy another expensive app.

For more information on editing
PDFs, study the tutorial:

If you have any trouble getting your PDFs edited in Word, or have other favorite tools for exporting PDFs, let us know in the comments below.

Editorial Note: This post was originally published in 2014.
It has been comprehensively revised to make current, accurate, and up to date
by our staff—with special assistance from Laura Spencer.