What do you do when you need to share important Word documents with your external contacts who don’t have access to Microsoft Office software like we enjoy here at NIU? The most common and probably universal answer to this question is to convert the Word documents to PDF files because everyone can download a free application that will open it – Adobe Acrobat Reader. That software can be downloaded from anywhere you are located simply by using your computer’s web browser.
This is a very popular question from both staff and faculty coming into the Technology Oasis, and one that is easy to answer. Starting with Word 2013, Microsoft built this functionality directly into its popular word processing application. Since this is brand new to many Windows users, we wanted to show our customers how easy it is to covert a word document to PDF as well as edit a PDF file in Word 2013. Only a few steps are needed to do this conversion, but I’m sure you will find it useful to know. Also included, you will find a short video showing you how to edit a PDF file using Word 2013.
The steps below are performed from within Microsoft Word 2013 on a Windows computer.
- Click the File tab
- Select Export
- Choose Create PDF/XPS
- Choose where you want to save the PDF file
Tip: To avoid including information you don’t want to share, in the Publish as PDF or XPS window, click Options. Then click Document and uncheck the Document properties box. Set any other options you want and click OK.
- Click Publish
