DOCX to PDF Converter

DOCX has been Word's default file type since 2007. It is a ZIP package that holds the text, styles, comments and pictures as separate XML parts, and Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice write it too, which is why most documents you receive today end in .docx.

A .docx file can carry two versions of the same document at once: the text as it reads now, and the trail of suggestions left by everyone who edited it. Tracked insertions and deletions, comment threads and the names attached to them all live inside the package, even when Word hides them on screen.

That makes the PDF a decision. A supervisor, a client or an editor who is asked to approve a draft often needs to see the markup, so this page starts with Include comments switched on: comments and tracked changes are printed in a margin next to the text they belong to. When the document goes to someone outside the team, untick the option and the PDF shows only the final wording. Either way, check the document once in Word before converting. A comment you resolved but did not delete still counts as a comment, and a deletion you forgot to accept is still part of the file.

Because DOCX is a published format, many programs write it. Google Docs saves one when you download a document for Word, Pages exports one for colleagues on Windows, and LibreOffice can use it as its default. Each of them stores the same parts, so the converter treats them the same way.

Small differences can still show up. A font that exists only in Google's library may be missing from the file and replaced by a similar one, and a layout built with text boxes in Pages may sit a few millimeters off. If the PDF must match what you see in the original program, export to PDF from that program; if you only have the .docx, this page gives the closest result without installing anything.

Embedded objects deserve a quick look as well. A chart pasted from Excel or an equation from Word's equation editor is drawn as it last appeared in the document, so update linked charts before converting. Hyperlinks stay clickable in the PDF, and cross-references such as "see page 12" keep the numbers Word last calculated.

Microsoft introduced the XML-based format with Office 2007 and submitted it to Ecma International, which published it as ECMA-376. Two years later it became ISO/IEC 29500. That public specification is the reason other programs can open and write .docx files at all, and the reason this converter can read them without Word.

PDF went the same way: Adobe's format became the open standard ISO 32000. Turning one documented format into another is predictable, which is why tables, footnotes and numbered lists survive the trip intact.

Most documents need nothing beyond the defaults. The options below matter when a DOCX is long, shared widely or headed for a formal submission. All of them sit under Advanced settings and keep their values for the whole batch, so set them once before adding 20 files. To change the format of the document itself rather than make a PDF, use the Document Converter page; to lock the finished PDF, see the Protect PDF tool.