- Unlike earlier versions, you don't need a third-party print driver or Microsoft add-on to print to PDF / save documents as PDF in Word 2010: the command is built right in (and free!) Open the document you want saved as PDF, click "File" (top left), and choose "Save As".
Tip: the keyboard shortcut for the Save-As command remains Alt+F, A.
- Select "PDF (*.pdf)" from the "Save as type" dropdown menu, and Word shows format options:
- "Standard (publishing online and printing)" is selected by default: for a smaller file (fast download/viewing and quicker to upload), select "Minimum size (publishing online)" instead.
- Clicking the "Options" button lets you control more specific settings (same as
XPS).⇒ Save all pages, just the current, or selected text;
⇒ publish with or without showing markup;
⇒ include or exclude bookmarks or structure tags. - The last group of settings in that dialog pertain to PDF specifically.
⇒ Check "ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A)" to make your document as widely compatible and accessible as possible, which will disable some more advanced features. Leave unchecked unless you have a good reason for using this more restrictive format.
⇒ "Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded" (checked by default) instructs Word to "take pictures" of portions of text that use a font family that cannot be included in the document. The upside is that all your PDF document viewers will have the same experience; the downside is that bitmapped paragraphs or tables cannot be selected with the mouse or copied as text. Work around this potential issue by using common fonts or those you know Word 2010 embeds successfully.
⇒ Check "Encrypt the document with a password" to password-protect your PDF: Word will prompt you to enter twice the 6-to-32-characters-long password you want. Anyone opening your PDF will need to enter a password to view its content (and unable to see it without it!) - With "Open file after publishing" checked, Word opens the generated file in your PDF reader.
- Click "Save" to generate your PDF (stored in default save folder: "My Documents", typically).
- With Adobe Acrobat Professional on your PC, you'll have more control over the print output: press Ctrl+P or go to "File > Print", and select "Adobe PDF" from the Printer dropdown:
- Click on the "Printer Properties" link (visible above) to access Acrobat's Adobe PDF Settings and customize print quality, file security, paper size, font embedding, and much more.
- Click "OK" to save these options, and then "Print".
Email AOL Mail Gmail Hotmail Yahoo Mail MS Office Excel 2010 OneNote 2010 Outlook 2010 Word 2010 OS & Devices Kindle Fire Windows 7 Web Dev C# and .NET JavaScript jQuery