Software & Apps MS Office How to Save an Outlook Email as a PDF Create a file that’s easier to use with other project documents by Karen Marcus Writer Karen Marcus is a former Lifewire writer who has also written for companies like HP, Intel, IBM, Samsung, and others. our editorial process Twitter LinkedIn Karen Marcus Updated on September 11, 2020 reviewed by Ryan Perian Lifewire Tech Review Board Member Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions. our review board Article reviewed on Sep 15, 2020 Ryan Perian MS Office Outlook Word Excel Powerpoint Tweet Share Email When you’re doing a work or personal project that involves electronic information, it’s always helpful to have everything you need in one place, such as a single folder on your hard drive or in the cloud. That can be tricky when the documents are in different formats. You may have Word files and Excel spreadsheets in a file, HTML files bookmarked online, and messages stored on your email server. Most of the time, it’s possible to convert files to a format that’s easier to work with. That’s the case with email, which can be converted to a portable document format (PDF) file. A PDF file can be stored alongside Word, Excel, and other types of documents in a regular document folder, and can be shared with and viewed by others regardless of the type of equipment or software they have. PDF files can also be protected with permissions and passwords. Here’s how to convert Microsoft Outlook email messages to PDF files. Convert Email to PDF With Outlook 2016 or Later Follow these steps if you have Windows 2010 installed. In Outlook, open the message you want to convert to PDF. Click the File tab and select Print. Under Printer, click the drop-down menu and select Microsoft Print to PDF. Click Print. In the Save Print Output As dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to save the PDF file. If you want to change the name of the file, do so in the File Name field and then click Save. The file is saved to the folder you chose. Previous Versions of Outlook For versions of Windows earlier than 2010, you need to save the email message as an HTML file, and then convert to PDF. Here’s how: In Outlook, open the message you want to convert. Click the File tab and select Save As. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to save the file. If you want to change the name of the file, do so in the File Name field. Click the Save as Type drop-down menu and select HTML. Click Save. Now open Word . Click the File tab and choose Open. Select your saved HTML file. Click the File tab and select Save As. Browse to the location where you want to save the file. In the Save As dialog box, click the Save as Type drop-down menu and choose PDF. Click Save. The PDF file is saved in the folder you selected. Convert Email to PDF With Office 2007 If you’re using Outlook 2007, there’s no easy way to convert an email message directly to a PDF. But you can get the information into a PDF using a few extra steps: In Outlook, open the message you want to save. Place your cursor in the message and press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select the entire body of the message. Press Ctrl+C to copy the text. Open a blank Word document. Press Ctrl+V to paste the text into the document. Press the Microsoft Office button and click Save. This process won’t include the message header. If you want to include that information, you can type it into the Word document manually, or click Respond > Forward, copy the content, and paste it into the document. In the Word document, press the Microsoft Office button, hover your pointer over Save As and select PDF or XPS. In the File Name field, type a name for the document. In the Save as Type list, select PDF. Under Optimize For, choose your preferred print quality. Click Options to select additional settings and then click OK. Click Publish. The PDF file is saved to the folder you selected. Convert Email to PDF on a Mac Follow these steps if you’re using Outlook on a Mac: In Outlook, open the message you want to convert to PDF. Click File in the menu bar and select Print from the drop-down menu. Click the PDF drop-down menu and select Save as PDF. Type in a name for the PDF file. Click the arrow next to the Save As field and navigate to the folder where you want to store the file. Click Save. The PDF file will be saved into the folder you selected. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit