There are several options available to convert your Microsoft Word documents into PDF format (for example, I have explained in my earlier articles that it can be done using Office 2007, using PDFCreator, or using OpenOffice). And, most of these options are free. In this article, I am explaining another useful method of freely converting your Microsoft Word documents into PDF files using Google Docs, which is a free online service from Google meant for enabling you to create, edit, convert, and save several types of document, spreadsheets, presentations. Accessing Google Docs is free and easy. If you’ve a Gmail account (and for that matter, most other email accounts will also do), you can start using Google Docs by freely opening a Google account. The same free Google Account can also be used for freely accessing many other Google services. Converting Word documents into PDF files using online Google Docs is a safe and convenient method and you don’t have to install any software for that purpose or depend upon other lesser-known online services. Moreover, you can also convert a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into a PDF document with Google Docs using the same method.
How to do it?
Follow the following easy steps to convert your Word documents into PDF documents with Google Docs:
(1) Login to your Google Docs account.
(2) Upload your existing Word document from your computer, or provide URL if that document is already available on the Internet, or else create a new document directly at Google Docs. To upload a document from your computer or to provide URL of the file on web, click Upload link in the toolbar in Google Docs (see image below):
(3) Following screen appears now:
From this screen, select Choose File button, if you want to upload the Word file from your computer and then from the Open dialog box that appears select the Word file from your computer.
Or, if you want to enter the URL of the Word file that is already available on the Internet, then provide that URL in the second box.
In either of the above cases, you can name this file being uploaded differently from its original file name.
Now, click Upload File button to upload the file to your Google Docs account.
(4) Once the upload is completed, your file gets opened in Google Docs. To directly convert this file into PDF from here, click Download file as from the File menu, and then from the popup menu select PDF (see image below):
You’ll get a Save As dialog box on the screen. Now, enter the file name with which you want to save it as PDF file and also select the folder on your computer where you want to save it; and then click Save button. Your Word document is now converted and saved on your computer as a PDF document. That’s it!
Alternative method:
(4-A) There is an alternative way to step (4) above, to convert and save your Word document as a PDF file. This method will be more useful if your Word document already exists on Google Docs or if you’ve already saved and closed the imported / uploaded Word document in Google Docs. To proceed with this alternative method, after completing step (3) above, save and close the uploaded file by clicking on Save & Close button, if it is not done already (see figure below):
(4-B) From the Explorer view of Google Docs, select the Word document that you want to convert to PDF by putting a check mark in front of its file name. Now, click Export as from the More actions menu, and then from the popup menu, select Save as PDF option. See, the following image for these actions:
(4-C) You’ll get a Save As dialog box on the screen. Enter the file name with which you want to save it as PDF file and select the folder on your computer where you want to save it; and then click Save button. Your Word document is now converted and saved on your computer as a PDF document.
Google Docs offers several other useful features in addition to what has been mentioned in this article. Moreover, it is absolutely free.
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How convert PDF documents into Microsoft Word using Google Docs ?