Word to PDF in Your Browser: Page Size, Margins, Text

The two Word to PDF settings that matter

Before you drop a file, set the page size and margins at the top of the tool. They apply to every document converted in that session.

• US Letter, 8.5 by 11 inches, is the default and the right choice in the United States and Canada.
• A4, 210 by 297 millimeters, is standard in Europe and most other countries; pick it when the recipient is abroad or a portal asks for it.
• US Legal, 8.5 by 14 inches, is mainly for legal filings and some contracts.
• Margins can be Normal at 1 inch, Moderate at 0.75 inch or Narrow at 0.5 inch.

Wider margins look more formal and leave room for hole punches and printer edges. Narrow margins fit more on each page, which helps with long tables, but many home printers cannot print right up to a 0.5 inch edge without clipping.

What the converter keeps from your document

The tool reads the structure of the .docx with the open-source mammoth library and lays it out as a new PDF with pdfmake. The result is real text, not a picture of each page, so it stays searchable and screen readers can read it.

• Headings, including the Title and Subtitle styles, and short bold lines that act as headings.
• Bold, italic, links, bulleted and numbered lists, and block quotes.
• Tables, sized to the page width, with the first row repeated when a table crosses a page.
• Images in PNG and JPEG, plus other raster formats converted automatically; old EMF or WMF vector drawings are skipped and counted in the result.
• Page numbers such as 1 / 3 in the footer whenever the PDF has more than one page.

Text is set in a clean standard font at 11 points. Custom fonts, text boxes, columns and Word's own headers and footers are simplified, and the result card counts how many Word features were simplified so you know to check them.

Checking the PDF before you send it

Each converted file gets a card with its name, size and a note that the text is real and selectable. A single file also downloads automatically. Open the Preview under the card to read the content as it will appear: in the offsite notes example, the title, the Goals bullets, the Agenda paragraph and the budget line are all there.

• Confirm that every section heading is present and in order.
• Check lists and tables for missing rows, especially near page breaks.
• Open the downloaded PDF and search for a word; if it is found, the text layer is real.
• If the card mentions skipped vector images, replace them in Word with PNG versions and convert again.

A minute of checking here saves an awkward follow-up email with the words sorry, wrong attachment. It also catches the classic problem of a document that looked fine on your screen but relied on a font or text box the recipient never sees.

Joining it with other files? See merging PDFs, and the Sign PDF tool adds a signature.

Download, Print / Save as PDF, or export from Word

There are three good ways to make a PDF from a Word document, and each has a use.

• Download PDF from this tool: quickest on any device, works on Chromebooks and borrowed computers without Word, and keeps the document on your device.
• Print / Save as PDF on the same card: opens the browser's print dialog using its own layout engine, which can look closer to Word's typography. Choose Save as PDF as the destination and allow pop-ups if nothing opens.
• File, Save As or Export in Microsoft Word, Pages or LibreOffice: the most faithful copy of complex layouts with columns, headers and custom fonts, if you have the app.
• Google Docs: File, Download, PDF document, after opening the .docx from Google Drive.

For letters, cover sheets, meeting notes, reports, school assignments and rental applications, the browser conversion is more than enough, and it works on shared or borrowed computers where you would rather not install anything or sign in to an office account. For a designed brochure or a thesis with strict formatting rules, export from the app that made it.

Step-by-step

Common mistakes to avoid

Pro tips

Frequently asked questions