Convert a Word File Into a PDF with Google Docs

November 5, 2008

If you need to convert a Word document into a PDF—or one of many other formats—take it on a trip into and out of Google Docs. Even if you have no need to store it or edit it on Google Docs, this is a quick way to generate a PDF! Google Docs has both import and export functionality. Using the two in combination means that you can convert documents; for instance, you can upload a Word document and save it as a PDF file.

To upload a Word file, go to the Google Docs home page (http://docs.google.com) and select Upload.

In this example, I’m uploading a Word file containing a tips for seo, as pictured in below :

After the upload finishes, you’ll be taken to the newly uploaded document. Click the File menu and select Save as PDF as shown in Figure below. You will now be able to download the PDF, as shown in Figure . How well the layout survives the conversion greatly depends on the document. For simple documents, the results are usually good, but for more complex ones you will see some layout changes.

NOTE
The maximum size of an uploaded Word file, including embedded images, was 500 KB at the time of this writing. If you need to convert a larger Word file, consider installing Adobe Acrobat, the free CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com), or the free OpenOffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org), which can also save documents as PDFs. Mac OS X can create PDFs natively from any application that can print.

Google Docs supports a number of document formats, and the list of supported formats changes from time to time. Here’s the list that was current as of the time of this writing:

File types you can import into Google Docs documents:

HTML, text, Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, OpenOffice document, StarOffice

File types you can export from Google Docs documents:

HTML, text, Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, OpenOffice document, PDF

File types you can import into Google Spreadsheets:

Comma-Separated Values files, Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice spreadsheet

File types you can export from Google Spreadsheets:

HTML, text, Comma-Separated Values files, Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice spreadsheet

File types you can export from Google Presentations:

HTML

File types you can import into Google Presentations:

Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT and PPS)