Google Docs Low Vision: Converting Your Docs to Word Files and PDF

Hi, my name is Vikki Vaughan, and in today’s workshop, we’ll learn to convert Google Docs into Word and PDF documents. For information about converting files the opposite way–from Word or PDF into Google Docs–be sure to check out another workshop in this series.

Many people in our life use something other than Google Docs as their primary word processing program. Because Google Docs is an online program, others can’t just import them into Microsoft Word. In order for Word users to view our Google Docs, we must first convert them to Microsoft Word.

Sometimes, we want to convert our Google Docs to another format such as RTF, Plain Text, PDF, or another format. Not to worry, it’s easier than it sounds. It’s as simple as downloading our Google Doc to the desired format. Let’s give it whirl.

We’ll start from the Google Docs homepage. Let’s open the Google Doc we wish to convert to a Word format.

We’ll open the File Menu with a keyboard shortcut of Alt and the letter F, for File. We can also select it with our mouse pointer, if we prefer.

Now we’ll use our down arrow to move to Download. We then press the right arrow to open the submenu. If we prefer to use our mouse pointer, we click on Download and a submenu opens to the right.

Here in our submenu, we find many different format choices for converting our Google Doc. One of the most popular is Microsoft Word, the first item in our submenu.

By using our down arrow, we move through other formats, such as Rich Text Format, or RTF, and another popular choice, PDF. For more information about viewing PDF’s with Google Docs, be sure to check out another workshop in this series.

Since we’re wanting to convert our Google Doc to a Word document today, let’s up arrow to Microsoft Word.

When our new desired format is highlighted, we press our Enter key to select it.

We see the new Word document downloading here at the bottom of our screen in the Download Bar. When we’re ready to open it in Word, we double click on the document and it opens in a Protected View in Microsoft Word. This view mode allows us to only view the document. If we wish to edit or print it, we must select the Enable Editing button at the top of our window.

So, that was pretty straightforward, wasn’t it? For those times when we wish to save a Google Doc to another format, we go through the same process but select our desired format, such as PDF, in the Download submenu.

Now I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, so let’s go through the process one more time using only our keyboard. We’ll start with our Google Doc.

Let’s open our File Menu with Alt and the letter F, for file, then press our D key to open Download. Since our submenu is open and Microsoft Word is highlighted, by pressing our Enter key, we select Word as our desired format. If we want a different format, we use the arrow keys to move to our choice. Now that’s what I call easy!

In today’s workshop, we explored converting Google Docs into other formats. I’m Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me.