Forum Discussion
jeanie77
Feb 12, 2025Copper Contributor
"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", "S...
DaveMehr365
Feb 12, 2025MVP
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