Can I convert Word to PDF on my phone without installing the Word app?

Yes. Open Word to PDF in the phone's browser and pick the .docx from Files or Drive. The PDF is made in the tab and lands in Downloads. The Google Docs app is the other route for a file in Drive.

Why is there no Export to PDF in the Word app on Android?

The Android app relies on the system print service instead. Choose Print and pick Save as PDF from the printer list, or use the browser converter, which keeps the links.

Does a phone export keep the links clickable?

The browser converter, the iPhone Export command and the Google Docs export do. Any route through Print, on either phone, turns links into plain text.

Where does the iPhone put a PDF made from a Word file?

A browser download goes to Downloads in the Files app. Save to Files goes wherever you chose. If you tapped Save without looking, open Files and check Recents.

Is my document sent anywhere when I convert on a phone?

Not by the browser converter or the print routes, which run on the phone. The Word app on iPhone can use Microsoft's online service for some exports and says so on screen. Google Docs converts on Google's servers.

Word to PDF on a mobile phone

Word to PDF

How to save a Word document as a PDF on a phone

Open the document

Open Word to PDF in the phone's browser and pick the .docx from Files or Drive, or open the file in the Word app.
Find the export command

In the browser tool, press Convert. In the Word app on iPhone tap the three dots, then Export, then PDF. On Android tap the three dots, then Print, and choose Save as PDF.
Name it and pick a folder

iPhone asks where to save in the Files app. Android writes to Downloads unless you change the folder in the save sheet.
Open the PDF once

Tap the saved file. If a picture or a table is cut off, the fix is in the desktop guide, not in the phone app.

Four routes, four menus

The document is either in a Files or Drive folder, in the Word app, or in Google Docs. Which one decides the route, because each has a different export and a different idea of where a PDF belongs. The desktop guide, Convert Word to PDF, is for a laptop; nothing in its File menu exists on a phone.

All four routes below keep the text selectable in the PDF. None of them needs another app installed, and two of them never send the document anywhere. The ones that might are called out.

In the phone browser, with nothing installed

Word to PDF runs in Safari on an iPhone and in Chrome on Android. Open the page, tap the picker, and choose the .docx from the Files app or from Drive. The document is laid out in the tab, on the phone, and the finished PDF is reopened and its text counted before the Download button appears. Nothing is sent to a server, and hyperlinks stay clickable.

On iPhone the download lands in the Files app under Downloads, or wherever Safari is set to save. On Android it lands in the Downloads folder. A large document with many photographs can run a phone browser out of memory, because the whole document and the whole PDF are held at once; on that phone use the Word app route below or a laptop.

How to convert Word to PDF on an iPhone in the Word app

Open the document in the Word app and tap the three dots in the top right. Choose Export, then PDF, then Save to Files, and pick a folder in iCloud Drive or On My iPhone. The PDF appears there and in the Recents tab of the Files app. If the export screen says that Microsoft's online service will convert the file, the document is sent to Microsoft to do it. Read the notice before confirming.

The fully on-device route goes through the print sheet. Tap the three dots, then Print. In the print preview, pinch outward on the page thumbnail and the sheet becomes a PDF with a Share button. Tap Share, then Save to Files. This renders on the phone, but like every print route it turns hyperlinks into plain text.

How to save a .doc as a PDF on an Android phone

The Word app on Android has no Export to PDF. Tap the three dots, choose Print, and open the printer list at the top of the preview. Save as PDF is always there, provided by Android itself. Tap the round save button, confirm the file name, and the PDF lands in the Downloads folder. A .doc from 2005 goes through the same menu as a .docx from this morning, which is the one advantage this route has over the browser converter, which refuses a legacy .doc.

Android's Save as PDF is a print driver, so hyperlinks and bookmarks do not survive. For a report that people will read on screen that is a loss. For a letter or a form that will be printed it does not matter.

From Google Docs on either phone

If the document lives in Drive and opens in Google Docs, tap the three dots, choose Share & export, then Save as, and pick PDF document. Docs makes the PDF on Google's servers, since the document is already there, and drops it in the same Drive folder as the original. Hyperlinks stay clickable, and comments are left out.

A .docx placed in Drive without conversion opens in Docs in Office compatibility mode and exports the same way. Layout follows the Docs rendering rather than Word's, so a document with columns or text boxes can shift.

Where the file ends up

On iPhone, anything saved through Save to Files is in the Files app under the folder you chose, and Recents lists it first. A browser download goes to the Downloads folder in Files. On Android, the print route and the browser download both write to Downloads, which the Files by Google app shows under Downloads and most file managers show at the top level. Docs exports sit in Drive next to the source document on both phones.

To attach it to an email, start in the mail app and use its attach button, which opens Files or Drive. Sharing from the PDF viewer works too but some mail apps then embed a preview instead of an attachment.

If the PDF is too big to send

A document with a few photographs converts to several MB, and messaging apps and web forms refuse it. Compress PDF works in the same phone browser and shrinks the file in this tab to a target you type, then reads the result back to check the pages match. Compress a PDF on your phone walks through it. The other Office guides are under PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint help.

Questions people ask

Can I convert Word to PDF on my phone without installing the Word app?: Yes. Open Word to PDF in the phone's browser and pick the .docx from Files or Drive. The PDF is made in the tab and lands in Downloads. The Google Docs app is the other route for a file in Drive.
Why is there no Export to PDF in the Word app on Android?: The Android app relies on the system print service instead. Choose Print and pick Save as PDF from the printer list, or use the browser converter, which keeps the links.
Does a phone export keep the links clickable?: The browser converter, the iPhone Export command and the Google Docs export do. Any route through Print, on either phone, turns links into plain text.
Where does the iPhone put a PDF made from a Word file?: A browser download goes to Downloads in the Files app. Save to Files goes wherever you chose. If you tapped Save without looking, open Files and check Recents.
Is my document sent anywhere when I convert on a phone?: Not by the browser converter or the print routes, which run on the phone. The Word app on iPhone can use Microsoft's online service for some exports and says so on screen. Google Docs converts on Google's servers.

Do it now

The tool runs in this browser. Your file never leaves the machine, and the result is checked before you download it.