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I'd like to convert multiple word files into pdf files with a single operation and with a software (not online). Is it possible to do it in a simple way? I have Windows 10.

I tried CuteWriter, but for each file it needs to click on save button.

Thank you very much.

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  • You can actually do this with word.
    – joojaa
    Jul 29, 2017 at 9:37
  • So you need bulk word to pdf converter, right?
    – convert
    Jan 20 at 20:37

5 Answers 5

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LibreOffice can load Word documents and export them as PDF and it can be invoked on the command line: 

soffice --convert-to pdf *.doc

or

soffice --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export *.doc

Providing soffice is on your path will merrily convert all of your .doc files in the current directory to pdf. In my case soffice is located at "c:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin"

  • Free
  • Offline
  • Doesn't even need MS-Office installed
  • Works from the command line, (or batch files),
  • Cross platform, works on Windows, OS-X & Linux
  • May have problems with complex documents, e.g. those that produce part of their content with VBA.

Testing on Windows 10 with LirbeOffice 5.2.6.2 shows that the second option above works fine with explicit filenames but not with wildcards so you may need to get a list of your doc files, dir /b *.doc > temp.txt, and then edit it into a batch file.

Your temp.txt should be loaded into the editor and should looks something like:

Cv1.doc cv2.doc resignation.doc letter_to_press.doc Dont Know What.doc

An you need to edit this so that it looks like:

"C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin" --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export Cv1.doc "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin" --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export cv2.doc "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin" --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export resignation.doc "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin" --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export letter_to_press.doc "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin" --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export "Dont Know What.doc"

Which is quick and easy to do with the paste command, (note that files with spaces in will need to be in quotes as shown), and save it as convert.bat in the same directory as the files then simply run convert.bat to convert all of your files.

Note that files with some "special" characters in the name will cause problems, spaces can be addressed by quoting the filename but others such as quotes, colons, semicolons, any of &|!<>, etc., are likely to cause problems and should probably be renamed.

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  • Hello @Steve Barnes. Where is the command line? I tried in Command Prompt, but it does not work. Thank you for your help.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 12, 2017 at 11:43
  • Try: dir "c:\Program Files\Libre*" in your command prompt and dir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Libre*" to find our where your LibreOffice is installed, don't forget the quotes. Once you know where it is installed you should be able to use that _path_\program\soffice.bin as the command.
    – Steve Barnes
    Jul 12, 2017 at 16:09
  • Hi @Steve Barnes. The program is in C:\Programmi\LibreOffice 5. I tried to write dir "C:\Programmi\LibreOffice 5*" after dir "c:\Program Files\Libre*", but the file is not found.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 13, 2017 at 12:15
  • I tried also "c:\Programmi\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.bin". I get the error: impossible to run application. There is an internal error.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 13, 2017 at 19:56
  • Can you run it by double clicking & by selecting start -> LibreOffice 5,2 -> LibreOffice? If not there is a problem with your installation.
    – Steve Barnes
    Jul 14, 2017 at 4:23
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PDFCreator adds a "Convert with PDF Creator" option to Explorer's right-click menu. Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple files, than right-click and select "Convert with PDFCreator" to convert them all to PDF.

Select multiple PDF files, then right-click and Convert with PDFCreator

You probably want to disable the "Save As" dialog after each document. To do this:

  1. Open PDF Creator from the Start menu and change the default "Save" option for the "Default" profile from "Interactive" to "Automatic".
  2. Uncheck "Open file after saving."
  3. Specify the folder where these files should save. I put <InputFilePath> to save them in the same folder as the source files.

Turn off interactive saving to batch convert faster

Note: PDFForge (the makers of PDF Creator) have started pushing trial versions of PDF Architect (their paid software) with PDF Creator. To avoid this, install and update PDF Creator using Ninite.

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Microsoft included a free virtual printing service to create PDF versions of any Microsoft office document. Print as many as you like.

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  • Hello @Numair Aidroos. The above service is useful only when You want to convert single files.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 11, 2017 at 20:39
  • Try this service:. smallpdf.com/word-to-pdf
    – Lawyer Aidroos
    Jul 11, 2017 at 21:10
  • That allows to convert only a file at a time. In my question I specified no online tool.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 11, 2017 at 21:57
  • How many files ate there?
    – Lawyer Aidroos
    Jul 12, 2017 at 8:28
  • How many files would to like to convert in one go?
    – Lawyer Aidroos
    Jul 12, 2017 at 18:10
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A quick shot at google with "batch convert word to pdf free" resulted in a number of links. One of the links had a compilation of five or six free programs, almost all of which had free/trial/paid versions. Of course, the free had limitations with respect to quantity of files to be converted and/or number of pages per file. It's not stated in the question, but any such limitation invalidates the free software option, in my opinion.

One that did not have this limitation is from WeenySoft : Word to PDF Free Converter and allows for a batch process as well as storing/saving for future operations the settings used.

The specifications indicate it works on Windows 8 and might work fine on Windows 10, although not explicitly noted. Some of the converters I found don't work on .DOCX files, while this one supports them.

Nothing is said about ad-ware/spyware/malware being part of the download, but watch out for obscured check marks installing or changing your settings, common in free software packages.

WeenySoft Converter

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  • Hi @fred_dot_u. I installed Free Word to PDF Converter, but the conversion is very horrible because the Pdf isn't equal to the word file. Often a word page became 2 pdf pages.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 11, 2017 at 21:54
  • So much for a good looking free software package! No payload or hidden costs, but poor performance. Well, shucks. Try the google terms I suggested, maybe you'll get lucky in time.
    – fred_dot_u
    Jul 11, 2017 at 22:03
  • If you know paid version of professional softwares, tell me them please.
    – Gennaro Arguzzi
    Jul 12, 2017 at 6:08
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If the files are docx rather than doc you can use pandoc for bulk conversion, (not always 100% accurate on some complex documents). You will need a working latex installation, as mentioned on the site, for pdf generation.

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