How to Make a PDF of a Document in Word 2016

Word 2010 For Dummies

It's possible to save your Word 2016 document in the Adobe Acrobat document format, also known as a PDF file. This type of electronic publishing is secretly a form of printing your document. Obey these steps:

Finish your document.

Yes, that includes saving it one last time.
Press Ctrl+P to summon the Print screen.
Click the Printer button.

A list of available printers appears.
Choose Microsoft Print to PDF.
Click the Print button.

Nothing is printed on paper, but the document is "printed" to a new PDF file. That requires the use of the special Save Print Output As dialog box.
Choose a location for the PDF file.

Use the dialog box's controls to locate the proper folder.
Type a filename.
Click the Save button.

The PDF file is created. The original document remains in the Word window, unchanged by the print-to-PDF operation.

You need a copy of the Adobe Reader program to view PDF files. Don't worry: It's free.

Word 2016 document files are considered a standard. Therefore, it's perfectly acceptable to send one of your document files as an email attachment or make it available for sharing on cloud storage.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.