You’ve carefully crafted an important document on your computer, but as a text file, it doesn’t look professional enough to share. Plus, it can be edited by those that do receive it.
Perhaps you’ve written up a resume for example, and you want it to look smart when sending it in job applications.
The solution? You’ll need to convert your TXT to PDF. This is because PDF files preserve the appearance of your document, making it look expertly produced and ready for sharing.
What’s more, you won’t have to worry about shifting tables or different font sizes when it’s opened by someone else on a different computer. Once your text document is saved as a PDF file, it will appear exactly the same on every screen that receives it.
Luckily, creating a PDF file from a text file has become a lot easier over the years. There are plenty of methods on how to change PDF to text, all that are very easy to do.
So, whether you’re using NotePad, Word, or any other text editing software to write up your document, here are some easy ways to get your file looking professional and ready to share externally.
1. TXT to PDF Using Windows
If you’re using NotePad, here’s how to convert TXT to PDF.
Firstly, open your text document or create a new one.
From the file menu, select Print. Don’t worry – we won’t be printing anything! We just have to follow this method to get the PDF save options.
The print window should then appear. Go on to click the PDF button, and then select Save As PDF.
Then, find a location to save your PDF file.
You’ll now have a shiny new PDF file that looks exactly like your TXT file. You can then compress this PDF file and email it to someone else, or you can save a backup. Either way, it’s all good to go!
2. TXT to PDF Using Mac
If you’re using a Mac then you’ll need to convert txt to pdf using a different process.
Start by opening the text file in TextEdit. As you may know, this is the default text editor for TXT and other text files on a Mac.
Select the File menu and then click on Export as PDF. Note that this option will appear only in OS X 10.7 (Lion) and later versions. If you happen to be using an earlier type of OS X, select File then Save As and click on PDF as the file type.
Choose a name for your file and decide where to save it. Then, click Save to create the new PDF file.
If your new PDF files are blank, you may need to delete corrupt files. This is because some users have noted problems with creating PDFs using TextEdit, with the resulting PDF ending up blank.
Luckily, deleting a few system files seems to repair any problems. Simply click the Go menu in finder and then select Go to Folder. Enter ~/Library/Preferences and press return.
Then delete any com.apple.TextEdit.plist files. Note that there may be multiple .plist files linked with TextEdit.
Finally, restart TextEdit and try to create the PDF file again. Voila! It should all run smoothly.
3. Word to PDF using Windows
Writing up documents in Word is very popular and converting Word documents to PDF is super simple.
In fact, if you’re using Word 2010 or newer, you can save Word documents directly to PDF. Simply click Save As and select PDF as the file type.
However, if you’re using Word 2007, you’ll need to download the Save as PDF Add-in from Microsoft. You can use this method for any text file you can open or copy into Word.
4. Text to PDF Using Google Drive
Alternatively, you may decide to write up your documents in Google Drive so you have a copy of your work in the cloud. You can also share raw documents in Google Drive so they can be edited by others live.
To convert your text file in Google Drive to PDF, first open up your document.
Select the File menu and click Download As. Then, choose PDF Document. You can expect the PDF copy to start downloading immediately. All done!
Using Google Drive to convert text files is a very quick and efficient way to convert text files into PDFs. So, even if you’re working with text in another location it may be worth copying it into Google Drive to convert.
5. TXT to PDF Using an Online Converter
You can also convert TXT to PDF online using a free converter.
Simply search for a free online converter such as ours to quickly and easily convert files.
Select which type of file you need converting to PDF and click on browse to add your file. Then, tick the security check box to prove you’re human. You can then click on convert and your file will start to download immediately.
We accept DOC and DOCX text files and you can convert as many files as you like. Too simple!
Ready to Convert TXT to PDF?
Using these five methods, you’ll be able to convert TXT to PDF with ease whether you’ve written your document in NotePad, Word, or Google Drive. The choice is yours!
Using an iPad and need some help with your PDF files? Check out our tutorial on how to create PDF on an iPad.