Background

If you intend to share a finished document with a number of other users, PDF is a good format to choose because everyone should be able to open it regardless of what device or software they have. PDF files also ensure that your formatting is preserved, or in other words, the document will look the same for all people reading it.

Step-by-step guide

To convert a Word document to PDF, follow these steps:

Create your document in Word in the usual way, saving it as a .DOCX file type. (This is important because it gives you a version of the document you can re-edit whenever you need it.)
Click File, then Save As.
Choose a filename and location to save the PDF version of your file.
Set the Save As Type to PDF (you will find this beneath the File name space).
Click Save.

The newer versions of Word provide a quicker means of creating the PDF file. At Step 2, select Save as Adobe PDF from the File menu. Follow the remaining steps but skip Step 4.

There are other ways of converting a Word document to PDF. Each method can have subtly different results depending on which Word features you have used in your document. So if you are not happy with the results of one method, try a different one.

Print to PDF: Go through the process of printing the document, but instead of selecting a printer, choose Microsoft print to PDF or Adobe PDF if these are available. Provide a filename and location when you are prompted.

Acrobat - Create PDF: If your computer has Adobe Acrobat installed, click on the ACROBAT menu, then click Create PDF. Provide a filename and location when you are prompted.

Additional resources

Don't have Adobe Reader? Go here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/

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