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jeanie77's avatar
jeanie77
Copper Contributor
Feb 12, 2025

"Open as PDF" option in SharePoint context menu

We use SharePoint to manage and share documents, mainly Word and Excel files. It would be useful if SharePoint included a "Open as PDF" option in the file context menu, alongside "Open" "Preview", "Share" and so on.

This functionality would help avoid storing duplicate versions of the same document (.doc for editing and .pdf for viewing and sharing), keeping SharePoint cleaner and reducing storage redundancy.

I would like to hear your thoughts: do you have the same need? How have you solved it? Does anyone know if Microsoft is considering adding this feature?

Thanks! :)

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1 Reply

  • DaveMehr365's avatar
    DaveMehr365
    MVP
    Feb 13, 2025

    Hi jeanie77 

     

    when you wanna open a document as PDF, you will be stored the document as first as PDF, with this proceed you will be creating redundancy elements and storage. It's not possible to open a DOCX or XLSX "as PDF". Only a PDF will open as PDF...

     

    You have two options

    • Use the normal DOCX to share, with read-permissions the user can't edit the document or can't upload a newer version. As additional, you can use check-in/out for an exclusive editing or SharePoint versioning, so user with read permission can only see major-version, editors can work with minor versions.
    • You can create two libraries: one as working documents with DOCX, and another with an automatically publish as PDF

     

    I prefer the first one. Or what's the reason, you don't wanna share DOCX files? It's also possible to open a PDF in word, then you are in the same situation again.

     

    Best, Dave

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