What is the right way to convert Word to PDF in bulk on a PC or Mac?

Copper Contributor

I am a Mac user and new to Windows 11.  Currently, I have a task that needs to convert more than 100+ Word documents (.docx) to PDFs. Doing this one by one would take too much time, so I'm looking for a way to convert them in bulk.

 

Does anyone know of a method or tool that can help me efficiently convert multiple Word documents to PDF format all at once? Ideally, I'm looking for a solution that's easy to use and saves me a lot of time. 

 

P.S. I have a Windows 11 laptop and MacBook Pro.

 

Thanks

 

7 Replies
Open the Word document from Word app and export its to PDF. This is the simplest way I can think up to convert Word to PDF file. However, you can only do this for one file at one time.

As a Mac user, you're probably used to relying on apps like Preview or Automator to get the job done. But, on Windows 11, you'll need a different approach. I'm a big fan of using the built-in tools whenever possible. And, in this case, Microsoft Word itself has a nifty feature that allows you to convert Word documents to PDF in bulk

Here's the trick: Open Microsoft Word, go to the "File" menu, and select "Save As". Then, choose "PDF" as the file type, and make sure the "Save as type" dropdown is set to "PDF". Now, here's the magic part: in the "Save as" window, click on the "Options" button next to the "Save as type" dropdown. In the "Save as PDF" dialog box, check the box that says "Save all files in subfolders".

@NaryshkinPowershell + Microsoft Office app. The two combination can help you bulk convert Word to PDF on any Windows PC, including Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows 7.This approach automates the conversion process without manually opening each document. First, Microsoft Office should be installed on your computer, as the script will utilize Word's COM objects to perform the conversion.

 

Open Notepad and paste the following PowerShell script. This script will convert all .docx files in a specified folder to .pdf:

 

$word = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application
$word.Visible = $false

$folderPath = "C:\Path\To\Your\Word\Files"
$outputFolderPath = "C:\Path\To\Save\PDFs"

$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $folderPath -Filter *.docx

foreach ($file in $files) {
$doc = $word.Documents.Open($file.FullName)
$pdfFilename = [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($file.Name, ".pdf")
$outputPath = Join-Path -Path $outputFolderPath -ChildPath $pdfFilename
$doc.SaveAs([ref] $outputPath, [ref] 17) # 17 corresponds to the wdFormatPDF format
$doc.Close()
}

$word.Quit()

 

The script loops through each .docx file in the designated input folder, converts it to PDF, and saves it in the output folder. The script ensures that the Word application is closed after the conversion to prevent any resource leaks. Save this script with a .ps1 extension, for example, ConvertWordToPDF.ps1.

 

Run the PowerShell script from the Command Prompt by typing the following command and pressing Enter:

 

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Path\To\ConvertWordToPDF.ps1"

 

This method provides a straightforward way to batch convert Word documents to PDF using command-line tools on Windows 11.

 

 

 

I'm not seeing any box that says "Save all files in subfolders".
I'm having a problem with this I think because I have a space in my path. I'm getting a parse error.

@Cordadio Thanks for that script. It's been really useful. I got a syntax error running it so I changed the SaveAs line to:
$doc.SaveAs([String] $outputPath, [ref] 17) # 17 corresponds to the wdFormatPDF format