The PDF format is now the standard of digital documents, since it maintains the formatting, graphics and tables on any type of computer are opened (thanks to the special programs to manage PDF; of which the most famous is certainly Adobe Acrobat Reader) . But if we often generate files with Wold, Excel and PowerPoint for work, we absolutely need to have valid tools at hand to be able to convert these document files to PDF, quickly, quickly and above all compatible. In this guide we have therefore collected all the methods, tools and programs to convert Office documents to PDF ; many of these methods are already integrated within the operating system or Office suite, but if we want to obtain professional results from the conversion we can also use specific free programs for the conversion.
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How to convert DOC, XLS and PPT files to PDF
To effectively convert DOC, XLS and PPT files to PDF, we recommend that you read all the chapters below, so that you can find the one that suits your work or home needs. All the methods or programs described are free: we won't have to spend a single euro to convert Office files to PDF!Virtual printer in Windows 10
Windows 10 allows you to "print" any type of document open on Office directly to PDF. To take advantage of this functionality, simply press CTRL + P in the Office program in use (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.), then select the virtual printer called Microsoft Print to PDF .
After selecting the printer, click on the Print button at the top; a file manager window will appear, in which we will have to choose the save folder and the name to be given to the file (which will be saved in PDF format). To get the actual file, all we have to do is press Save, so as to generate the PDF of the document open at that moment.
Export to PDF on Office 2010 or higher
If we use Office 2010, 2013 or later we can save any PDF file without using additional programs or without using virtual printers. To do this, all we have to do is open or create the document in one of the Office programs, then go to the File menu and choose Save As ; from the line Save as we choose, among the many formats available, the PDF format. Before saving, you can also choose whether to minimize the size of the PDF file (ideal if it must be sent via email or published on the Internet) or whether to keep it normal.
In Office 2019 we can export directly to PDF keeping the original formatting of the document; to do this, click on the File menu at the top, go to Export and click on Create PDF / XPS . A new file manager window will open, where we can choose the path where to save the file, its name and the type of PDF to be created.
In addition to the Optimize for buttons, we can customize the creation of PDFs by clicking on Options . To create the actual PDF, all we have to do is click on Publish .
Export to PDF on LibreOffice
We use the free LibreOffice suite as an alternative to Microsoft Office ">The operating system file manager window will open again, where we will only have to choose the save path and the name of the PDF file to be created.
Virtual PDF printers
If we have Windows 7 as the operating system, we can convert DOC, XLS and PPT files to PDF using virtual printers to create PDF. The best program of this type is definitely doPDF, available for free.
This light and fast program is installed as if it were a new printer and is used in a similar way to the one integrated in Windows 10: you start the printing process on the Office program (with CTRL + P) and choose doPDF as the virtual printer, so to create a PDF file.
Compared to the methods seen so far, this program allows you to customize some aspects of the PDF such as the information of the document and the quality of the conversion (to generate smaller files): that's why we can safely use it even on Windows 10 as an alternative to the integrated printer and the present tool inside the Office suite.
To deepen the discussion, we invite you to read our guide on the Best virtual printers to create pdf from documents and web pages, free for Windows .
Convert multiple Office files to PDF
If we have many DOC, Excel and PPT documents to convert to PDF all together, we can use the free DocuFreezer program.
The program allows you to load any type of document generated with Office (and not only) and to convert groups of files to PDF; to use it, all we have to do is drag the files into the interface (or use the Add files button), choose the PDF format as the Output file type and click the Start button at the top right to start the multiple conversion.
Conclusions
As we have seen, we have a variety of methods and programs to convert DOC, XLS and PPT files to PDF for free, we just have to choose the one that best suits our work needs.If, on the other hand, we want to carry out the reverse process, i.e. converting PDF to Office documents, we invite you to read our guide to the best programs to convert PDF to documents . If, on the other hand, we need to sign important PDFs, we advise you to read our article on how to sign PDFs and documents on PC, Mac Android, iPhone, iPad .
