How to Batch Convert Word Documents into PDF Files

Microsoft Word is a top-notch word processor using which you can save documents in .doc, .docx, and different other formats. When you need to send a document to someone who doesn’t have Office Word installed, you usually convert the document to PDF and send it.

As you may have known, Microsoft Word lets you convert or save a document (.doc or .docx file) as a PDF file using the Save As dialog.

batch convert word documents to pdf

Open the document, and launch the Save as dialog. Select PDF (*.pdf) from the list and save the file.

Another option would be to use the Microsoft Print to PDF driver in Windows 10 to output the .doc or .docx file to a .pdf document. For this, you’d use the Print option (instead of Save as) to print the document to PDF.

batch convert word documents to pdf

Pre-Windows 10 systems don’t have the Microsoft Print to PDF driver. In those systems. you can use the free CutePDF Writer or Foxit PDF Printer (part of Foxit PDF Reader software.)

But, if you have tens or hundreds of Word documents that you want to convert to PDF, using the GUI option would be a time-consuming and tiring task.

This article tells you how to batch convert multiple .doc or .docx files to PDF files using Windows Script and other methods.

How to Batch Convert Word Documents into PDF Files

Method 1: Using a custom VBScript

Microsoft Office has automation or scripting support. Using a VBScript, you can bulk convert Word documents to PDF. Here is a simple script I wrote to do the job:

'Convert .doc or .docx to .pdf files via Send To menu
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
For i= 0 To WScript.Arguments.Count -1
   docPath = WScript.Arguments(i)
   docPath = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(docPath)
   If LCase(Right(docPath, 4)) = ".doc" Or LCase(Right(docPath, 5)) = ".docx" Then
      Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
      pdfPath = fso.GetParentFolderName(docPath) & "\" & _
	fso.GetBaseName(docpath) & ".pdf"
      objWord.Visible = False
      Set objDoc = objWord.documents.open(docPath)
      objDoc.saveas pdfPath, 17
      objDoc.Close
      objWord.Quit   
   End If   
Next

Convert Word documents to PDF using VBScript

  1. Copy the above VBScript code to Notepad.
  2. Save the file with a .vbs extension, and in a permanent folder. — e.g., d:\scripts\doc2pdf.vbs
    batch convert word documents to pdf
  3. Close Notepad.
  4. Open File Explorer and browse the following SendTo folder:
    C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
  5. Create a shortcut to the script doc2pdf.vbs in the SendTo folder.
  6. Prefix the shortcut target with wscript.exe and then followed by a space.
    batch convert word documents to pdf
  7. Optionally, assign a nice-looking icon by clicking on the Change Icon button.
  8. Name the shortcut accordingly — e.g., Convert Word Docs to PDF
    batch convert word documents to pdf
  9. Now, open the folder that contains the Word documents that you want to convert to PDF.
  10. Select the documents, right-click on the selection, and click Send to.
  11. Click Convert Word Docs to PDF in the Send to menu.
    batch convert word documents to pdfThat’s it! Your PDF files are now ready!
    batch convert word documents to pdf

Method 2: Using File Converter (Freeware)

File Converter is a simple tool which allows you to convert or compress one or several files using the context menu in Explorer. This program is Freeware!

After you install the software, all you need to do is select the .doc or .docx files you want to convert, click File Converter in the right-click menu and select To Pdf

batch convert word documents to pdf

It shows you the conversion status with the progress bar.



batch convert word documents to pdf

Command-line

To convert a .docx file to .pdf using command-line using File Converter, use this syntax:

"C:\Program Files\File Converter\FileConverter.exe" --conversion-preset "To Pdf" "drive:\path\filename.docx"

Note that this program can convert many file formats to different output formats. You can configure the presets and output format in the File Converter Settings window.

batch convert word documents to pdf

Here is the list of the input and output formats supported by File Converter.

Supported output formats Compatible input formats
Audio flac, aac, ogg, mp3, wav 3gp, aiff, ape, avi, bik, cda, flac, flv, m4a, mkv, mov, mp3, mp4, oga, ogg, wav, webm, wma, wmv
Video webm, mkv, mp4, ogv, avi, gif 3gp, avi, bik, flv, gif, m4v, mkv, mp4, mpeg, mov, ogv, webm, wmv
Image png, jpg, ico, webp bmp, exr, ico, jpg, jpeg, png, psd, svg, tiff, tga, webp, pdf, doc*, docx*, odt*, odp*, ods*, ppt*, pptx*, xls*,
xlsx*
Document pdf doc*, docx*, odt*, odp*, ods*, ppt*, pptx*, xls*, xlsx*, bmp, exr, ico, jpg, jpeg, png, psd, svg, tiff, tga

* You need to have Microsoft Office installed and activated in order to convert Office documents.

This program, as well as the VBScript method, use Microsoft Office Word automation method to convert .doc or .docx to PDF files. This means that you’ll need to have Office installed for the program to convert your Word documents.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

54 thoughts on “How to Batch Convert Word Documents into PDF Files”

  1. The first method is awesome for its efficiency and simplicity. Thanks very much.
    Is it possible to add some PDF conversion parameters (directly in the script) ?

    Reply
  2. Thank You very very very much……… This made my work very very easy.. what an effective way for mass conversion to pdf.
    Thanks again

    Reply
  3. You’re the man! I don’t know anything about computers, but I followed your instructions and it worked! I felt like a computer geek!

    Reply
  4. This is great. Is there something to add to the script to make the PDF secured? It doesn’t need a password, just make it so that no one can edit the PDF.

    Reply
  5. Hi Ramesh. Thank you so for much for your script. But I need to save the pdf with No Markup. Is there way to amend the script to do that?

    Much appreciated.

    Reply
    • If LCase(Right(docPath, 4)) = ".doc" Or LCase(Right(docPath, 5)) = ".docx"  Or LCase(Right(docPath, 5)) = ".docm" Then
  6. Perfect! Thanks! I just added a message box to the end letting me know it was done converting.

    MsgBox “Completed converting documents to PDF. Thank you.”, 48

    Reply
  7. VBA routine works great EXCEPT I get a “This document contains Ink Notations. Continue?”, requiring me to “OK” each one. Is there a way to automate this part?

    Reply
  8. I have a word document (letterheads) with more than 10 letters having two page each. I want to print each letter in PDF format in a single click. How can we do this?

    Reply
  9. Hi, thank you for the solution with the VBScript. It worked out.

    However, there is one thing missing and I would like to ask how it is possible to change that:

    While converting from Word to PDF it seems to be the setting that links (shortcuts – by clicking to the point in the table of content, you’re forwarded directly to the corresponding chapter) are converted as well, but the rest seems to be “as a picture”. Means: I can’t use the search-function (Ctrl+F) in order to search for terms or buzzwords.

    How can I change that?

    Thank you in advance

    Reply
  10. If you put this vbs script in the folder where your word files are (named anything with .vbs extension), then select all your word files and drag them on to the vbs script icon, it will batch convert all the selected files.

    This worked for me on win 10.

    Reply
  11. Thank you. I previously had a script which worked but for each one a save dialogue would come up and I had to hit save each time. Pretty dull when there might be 100 Word documents. This works a treat in a server environment. Brilliant.

    Reply
  12. I recently has cyber security software installed that stopped this from working so I wanted to post a modified version that doesn’t perform this task in minimized but instead opens the windows up. It’s more intrusive to your workflow but it’s better than nothing.

    'Convert .doc or .docx to .pdf files via Send To menu
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    For i= 0 To WScript.Arguments.Count -1
       docPath = WScript.Arguments(i)
       docPath = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(docPath)
       If LCase(Right(docPath, 4)) = ".doc" Or LCase(Right(docPath, 5)) = ".docx" Then
          Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
          pdfPath = fso.GetParentFolderName(docPath) & "\" & _
    	fso.GetBaseName(docpath) & ".pdf"
          objWord.Visible = True
          Set objDoc = objWord.documents.open(docPath)
          objDoc.saveas pdfPath, 17
          objWord.Quit   
       End If   
    Next
    Reply
  13. Thank You, This is what I needed. I snagged a file renaming app and then this. The File Converter remains slow, but moves faster than my old, stand alone Acrobat. I refuse to pay an annual licence to Adobe–for now anyhow.
    Linda

    Reply
  14. I normally expect nothing from these online articles, however, this is fantastic. Gladly turn off my ad blocker for you good sir/ma’am.

    Reply
  15. anyone having this issue , i only can convent 365 version word file , but 2003 word file it cannot be convent …. please help

    Reply

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