Word to PDF

Worth knowing

• The file never leaves your computer. Every one of these tools runs inside your browser. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no copy on a server, nothing to delete afterwards and no queue of other people’s documents next to yours.
• What carries across. Headings, bold, italic, underline, size, colour, alignment, shading, bullet and numbered lists, tables with their column widths, and inline pictures.
• A document laid out as a form is reproduced, not re-flowed. If the .docx holds its content in positioned boxes — which is what a converted form looks like — every element is drawn at its own coordinate and the page count matches the original exactly.
• Line breaks are recalculated. This typesetter and Word measure with different font metrics, so breaks may not fall where Word puts them. For ordinary prose the difference is a word or two per paragraph.
• Not carried: footnotes, headers and footers, embedded objects. A running header is not repeated on every page, footnotes are left out, and a spreadsheet or chart embedded as an object is not drawn. You are told which of these applied to your file.

When to use it

• Sending a CV, quote or letter that must look the same on every device.
• Uploading a document to a portal that accepts PDF only.
• Freezing a final version of a document so nobody edits it by accident.

Questions

Why convert Word to PDF before sending?

A .docx can look different on someone else's computer if they lack your fonts or use another word processor. A PDF fixes the layout, so it reads the same everywhere.

Are headers, footers and footnotes kept?

No. Running headers and footers are not repeated, footnotes are left out and embedded objects such as charts are not drawn. The converter tells you when your file had any of these.

Does it keep A4 or Letter page size?

Yes. The page size and margins come from the document's own settings.