Batch convert a folder of DOCX files to PDF

G20th April 2016

Use this handy PowerShell script to convert all Microsoft Word DOCX files in a directory into Adobe Acrobat PDF files.

This simple PowerShell script will read through a directory and convert all Microsoft Word files (.doc, .docm and .docx) into PDF files. Simply change the code to reflect the target directory.

$path = "c:\path\to\files" #Target directory for converting Word files
$word_app = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application

#Convert .doc and .docx to .pdf
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Filter *.doc? | ForEach-Object {
    $document = $word_app.Documents.Open($_.FullName)
    $pdf_filename = "$($_.DirectoryName)\$($_.BaseName).pdf"
    $document.SaveAs([ref] $pdf_filename, [ref] 17)
    $document.Close()
}
$word_app.Quit()

A -Recurse function can be added if required.

PDF files will be output to the same directory as their progenitor .doc/.docx files and will share the same file name.

Comments:

11 responses to “Batch convert a folder of DOCX files to PDF”

Written by tester on 13 August 2016: +

Hello,

Thank you so much for this script, it works perfect under windows 10 with office 2016, you saved me hours of work! I have thousands of docx files to convert to pdf for work and this just saved my day.

Written by Dave Chadderton on 7 July 2017: +

Ok, so I didn’t have 1000s of PDFs like the other commenter, but I did have 74 and this script has just saved me a couple of hours work!

Thank you.

Written by Thomas Baerten on 18 June 2018: +

Lifesaver!

Written by Abdul Ahad on 27 June 2018: +

Hi!
Thanks a ton for saving valuable time :D

Written by Liam Fitzgerald on 31 August 2018: +

Thanks, super helpful, on my system I needed to remove the [ref] from this line

$document.SaveAs([ref] $pdf_filename, [ref] 17)

as I was getting errors like this:

Argument: ‘1’ should not be a System.Management.Automation.PSReference. Do not use [ref].
At C:\Users\lfitzgerald\Documents\ian\convert.ps1:8 char:21
+ $document.SaveAs <<<< ([ref] $pdf_filename, [ref] 17)
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RefArgumentToNonRefParameterMsg

Once I changed it to: $document.SaveAs($pdf_filename, 17) it all worked correctly.

Thanks again.

Written by Robin Back on 5 December 2018: +

Excellent. Many thanks. Now adding Powershell scripting to the toolbox.

Written by Thomas on 15 January 2019: +

Hey guys, I keep getting this error

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:6 char:5
+ $document = $word_app.Documents.Open($_.FullName)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

Written by Yossi on 23 July 2019: +

Hi, first.. many thanks its save my slot of times.

How can this script convert also from the subfolders…
My doc file is in c:\docs
I want also to convert files inside c:\docs\projects
and more folder inside c:\docs

Can you pls show me what I need to add to this script?

Written by Simon on 8 August 2019: +

When using OMPM, you would use the “\*” as many as 9 times to have it search the underlying folders, i.e. fldr=C:\Temp\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Try that.

Reply
Written by PM on 23 August 2019: +

I am thinking that this is what Adam meant when he made reference to adding a -Recurse function. Probably after Get-ChildItem.

Reply