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Desktop app

DOC to PDF converter

Coming to the PDFCheetah desktop app

Turn an older .doc Word file into a PDF, in the PDFCheetah desktop app.

What it will do

DOC to PDF will open an older Word .doc file and save it as a PDF that looks the way the document looks in Word: the same fonts, line breaks, page breaks, tables and pictures.

A .doc file is the binary format older versions of Word saved, before .docx replaced it. Word still opens one, in Compatibility Mode, and so do LibreOffice and Pages.

Older documents often use fonts that today's computers no longer have. A font that is missing on the computer doing the conversion has to be replaced by a similar one, which can move line and page breaks, so open the file and check it looks right before you convert it.

It will run in the PDFCheetah desktop app, on your own computer, with nothing uploaded.

Why it needs the desktop app

A Word document is not a set of pages. It is a description of one, and the program that opens it decides where each line breaks, where each page ends and how each table fits. Getting that right takes a full office layout engine.

The engine the desktop app will carry, LibreOffice, is far too large to download into a browser tab every time you open a page, and a converter that guesses at the layout instead gives you a PDF that does not match your document. The app installs it once and converts on your computer.

Save it as a PDF today

The program you already edit the document in can almost certainly save it as a PDF. Here is how, step by step.

  • Text to PDF. If the document is plain text, PDFCheetah turns a .txt file into a PDF in your browser today.

Microsoft Word

  1. Open the file in Word.
  2. Choose File, then Save As (Save a Copy in some versions).
  3. Set the file type, or File Format on a Mac, to PDF.
  4. Choose Save, or Export on a Mac.

Google Docs

  1. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs.
  2. Choose File, then Download, then PDF Document (.pdf).

This way uploads your file to Google Drive. The others on this page work on your own computer.

LibreOffice Writer (free, works offline)

  1. Open the file in LibreOffice Writer.
  2. Choose File, then Export As, then Export as PDF.
  3. Pick the pages and the image quality you want, then choose Export.

Pages on a Mac

  1. Open the file in Pages, which reads Microsoft Office files.
  2. Choose File, then Export To, then PDF.
  3. Choose Next, name the PDF, then choose Export.

Any program that can print

  1. Open the file and choose Print.
  2. On Windows, pick Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer. On a Mac, open the PDF menu at the bottom of the print window and choose Save as PDF.
  3. Choose Print or Save, and pick where the PDF goes.

Printing to PDF keeps what is on the page, but links and the document's headings are usually lost.

Nothing on this page converts a file today. PDFCheetah's web tools turn text, Markdown, CSV and pictures into PDFs in your browser, but not Office documents.

The desktop app

The PDFCheetah desktop app is being built for Windows, macOS and Linux, to do the work a browser tab cannot, on your own computer. Its download page goes up when the app is published.

One email, when this tool is ready in the desktop app. No newsletter, and we do not pass it on.

Common questions

Is DOC to PDF free?
The ways to save a document as a PDF on this page are free today. In the desktop app, Office to PDF is planned as part of Pro, which has no price yet, so there is nothing to buy here.
Is my file uploaded?
No. Nothing on this page takes a file. The desktop app will convert on your own computer, the way every PDFCheetah tool works in your browser. Of the ways above, only Google's apps upload your file, to Google Drive.
When will it be ready?
There is no date yet. Leave your email above and we will send one message when it is ready in the desktop app.