Convert a Word document to PDF

How the conversion works

Your document is uploaded over HTTPS to a private temporary folder on our server, where LibreOffice opens it and exports it as a PDF. The PDF is streamed back to your browser and the folder is deleted immediately afterwards. Word files cannot be converted faithfully by a small script in the browser, which is why this tool uses a server instead of running locally.

A PDF freezes the layout: page breaks, margins, headers, footers, tables and images are fixed, and the recipient sees the same pages whatever software or device they use. The text stays selectable and searchable because it is written as real text, not as a picture of the page.

LibreOffice is not Microsoft Word, so the result is very close for ordinary letters, reports and CVs, but not guaranteed to be pixel-identical for heavily designed documents. The deep sections below explain where differences come from and how to avoid them.

Why the PDF can differ from what Word shows

The most common difference is fonts. A .docx file usually stores only the name of the font, not the font itself. If the server does not have that font, LibreOffice picks a substitute with different letter widths, and a paragraph can wrap one word earlier or later. Over ten pages, that can move a heading onto the next page.

The second source of difference is layout engines. Word and LibreOffice measure spacing, table cell padding and line height with slightly different rules, so tight designs such as forms built from many nested tables are the most likely to shift. Plain documents made of headings, paragraphs, lists, simple tables and images convert very reliably.

• Prefer common fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri-style sans fonts or Liberation-compatible families when the exact look matters.
• Check the first and last lines of each page in the PDF, because that is where reflow shows up first.
• If a page break is wrong, add a manual page break in the source document and convert again.

Preparing a document for a clean conversion

A few habits in the source file make the conversion more predictable. Use built-in styles for headings rather than bold text, insert page breaks instead of pressing Enter repeatedly, and place images inline with the text rather than floating them loosely over other content.

Accept or reject tracked changes and remove comments before converting if the PDF is meant for an outside reader; otherwise revision marks may be part of what you send. If the document contains a table wider than the page, shrink it or switch that page to landscape in Word first.

• Resolve tracked changes and delete review comments you do not want to share.
• Embed or replace unusual fonts, and keep images at a sensible resolution so the PDF stays small.
• After converting, run Compress PDF if the result is too large to email.

What happens to your file on the server

The upload travels over HTTPS and is written to a temporary directory named with a random job ID. LibreOffice runs with restricted resources, including time and size limits. When the PDF has been delivered, the whole job directory, input and output, is deleted. It is also deleted if the conversion fails, times out or is cancelled, and a background sweep removes anything older than 20 minutes as a safety net.

We do not keep documents in a database or object storage, nobody reviews them, and they are not used for training or analytics. Server logs record a job ID, the tool name, a size class, the duration and the outcome, never file names or contents. Even so, uploading is uploading: for a document that must not be transmitted at all, do not use a server-based converter.