How to convert doc to pdf?

OpenOffice can do that, http://www.openoffice.org

 

I assume you don’t have Word? I’m not sure but I think TextEdit can open .doc-files. Perhaps you should try this first.

 

Every Mac OS X application that can print files has the ability to save a file as PDF. To convert a .doc to .pdf, all you need to do is open the .doc in an appropriate program (TextEdit (comes with Mac OS X), Microsoft Word, Nisus Writer Express, etc can all read .doc files) select Print, and then click on "Save as PDF". A sheet will appear in which you can specify a file name. That's all there is to it!

 

I thought Text Edit could only read .doc files in Mac OS 10.3 but not in previous versions of the Mac OS. So if you don't have Word or 10.3, you may be out of luck, in which case you would need to change their format on the Windows side before bringing them into Mac. Basic text and rich text formats can be read by Text Edit on pre-10.3 Macs.

 

You thought wrong. Text Edit can read and write Word format files. Don't believe me? Open a file in Text Edit. Do File>Save As... Notice the pop-up menu button at the bottom of the Save/Open dialog box. It has two options, "Rich Text Format (RTF)" and "Word Format."

 

Well, I don't have Jaguar anymore, only Panther, so I can't check. My question was whether Text Edit can handle the .doc format in Jaguar and earlier OSes.

 

if there's a word file with a lot of formatting, textedit will just give you the bare text. i usually open complex word files with neooffice j (the java openoffice for osx) and save them as pdf files using osx's pdf print mechanism. if you don't want to go to all that trouble, iconv.com's word2pdf does a pretty good job - just upload your word file and download the pdf.

 

the easiest way of all is: Say you want to change your report's name, the name happens to be:

Galile'so life.txt
(example)

All you have to do is click on the icon like your going to change your files name, and rename it:

Galileo's life.pdf

It's that easy. You can also do that with .mpeg .avi .mov. ect. files. I do it all the time.

 

I assume you're joking, but some smilies or other indication of an attempt (and I emphasize attempt) at a joke would have been polite.

 

I found his/her attempt successful. A joke with an explanation is often no joke at all.

 

I'm confused. My explination wasn't a joke, I was dead serous. If you dont believe me, open up TextEdit and try it yourself. I'll show you a report I did for my World Civilization on Galileo about 2 weeks ago. (Don't plagerize me, and if your thinking of it, I didn't just copy and paste)

Thanks, I'll have to add that second sentance to my large collection of quotes.

 

ummm, it didn't work

I have a word document, did your thing, got an error about unable to open with preview.

 

Ditto.

you can't just change the .ext of a file and expect it to open in a different application

 

Yeah...sad but true. I heard, though, that in Tiger, while you still will not be able to change the file type by just editing the extension, you will be able to change the file *contents* by changing the base filename.

Have a "final paper due tomorrow - first draft.doc" ? No problem. Just rename it "final paper - final draft.doc" and you're all set. Better yet, rename it "final paper - grade A+.doc" just to be on the safe side.

And "Mohans picture - looks like hes drunk.jpg" ? No, I don't think so. How about "Mohans picture - looks like a model.jpg". Now we're talking.

<-- the FCC requires me to place this here and to inform you that any legal actions seeking to obtain reparations for damages caused by following this advice will be summarily denied.

 

I'm pretty sure pre-Panther TextEdit can only do RTF and plain text. Anyways, there's this free utility called StrangeLove that does that too. It uses a plugin called antiword to read the files and ghostscript to convert to pdf.
http://pygmysoftware.com/cgi-bin/product.pl?strangelove-info

 

Maybe you could download an office test drive, then open files in word, select print and save as PDF, all before the 30 day trial expires. Who knows, you might like it so much you'll have to buy it.

 

I realize this thread was 4 years ago, but I've been trying to figure out how to do that for ages. Thanks or something ...

You're a genius.

 

Really very simply! Thank you! I agree you are genius

 

OS X converts doc to pdf

It was late last night and I used your www.freefileconvert.com to convert a document, but the PDF came out looking slightly wonky, probably a conversion error. I went to download strangelove and it appears to be mothballed by the developer. I did a search to find a newer app to do the job, found a few that want $$$, then found out that OS X does this natively.

All you do is print and when the print dialog opens up asking how many pages you want printed, there is a button you can click to save as a PDF!

Rather then saving a pages document to word, then making a pdf on some online website, or some strangelove old app, I was instead able to convert directly without loss in quality.

It was simple and easy to do, using the print command and save as a pdf!

Hope this helps others too.

 

section breaks ruin the pdf

I hope someone will look at this, as the thread is so old. I am trying to convert my dissertation from word to pdf so I can turn it in and officially graduate. Although, maybe I shouldn't if I can't figure this out. Every time I print, then save as pdf, I get like 13 files because every time there is a section break in my document, it creates a new file. I need one, big file. Please help me!!

 

If you're on Leopard (or Snow Leopard) you can combine them in Preview.

 

I am having the same problem with my dissertation as well...
Combining in Preview doesn't work because the files that are split in different pdf would need to be inserted between pages that belong to as same pdf file.

Does anyone have another suggestion?

 

I would suggest that you find a single application in which to write your dissertation. You may choose Word, OpenOffice.org, Nisus Writer Pro, Pages, or something else. Whatever you use, your dissertation is too important for you to do a slap-dash job putting it togerther. At least, it ought to be.