Guide

Word to PDF: use the program that wrote it

We do not convert Word documents to PDF, and we would rather tell you why than do it badly. The good news is that the best converter is almost certainly one you already have.

Why we do not offer it

A .docx file is not a page. It is text and instructions — this paragraph is a heading, keep these lines together, number these footnotes — and turning it into pages needs a complete layout engine and the exact fonts the document was written with. Word is that engine. A converter running in a browser tab has to reimplement it and guess at the fonts.

The result of that guess is a PDF that looks nearly right: a line breaks one word earlier, a table spills onto the next page, a footnote moves. Those differences are easy to miss on screen and obvious once a document has been printed or signed. For something you are about to send, nearly right is the failure.

What to use instead

Each of these runs on your own machine, like everything here. None of them needs the document to be uploaded anywhere.

ProgramHow
Microsoft WordFile → Save As, and choose PDF as the type. On Windows, Options lets you keep the document’s structure tags for screen readers — leave that ticked.
Google DocsFile → Download → PDF document.
Apple PagesFile → Export To → PDF.
LibreOfficeFree and works offline. File → Export as PDF. Tick “Tagged PDF” to keep headings and reading order for assistive technology.

Once you have the PDF

Everything after the conversion is what this site is for: merging it with other files, compressing it, adding page numbers or a signature, and checking whether it will work with a screen reader before you publish it.