How do you convert a CV to PDF?

Start in the program that made the CV

Every major word processor writes a PDF itself, so there is no reason to hand your CV to a converter website. Exporting from the source keeps the text as text. Converting a printout, a photo or a screenshot does not: Greenhouse lists a resume uploaded as an image, rather than a document, among the reasons a resume fails to parse.

Keep the source file

The PDF is a copy for sending. Apple's Pages guide puts it plainly: changes you make to the exported document do not affect the original. Edit the DOCX, Google Doc, ODT or Pages file and export again each time.

The menu path in each program

Taken from each vendor's own help page on 13 October 2026. Menu names can shift between versions; the setting to watch is the one that most often goes wrong in that program.

Which format to send, PDF or Word, is a separate decision with its own guide based on what each applicant tracking system documents. For Word's full Options dialog, see the guide on making a CV in Word.

Settings that quietly spoil a CV PDF

A password nobody else has

Three of the tools above can lock the PDF: Word's Encrypt the document with a password, the Security Options button in the Mac print dialog, and Pages, where Apple notes that an existing password on the document carries over to exported PDF and Word copies unless you untick Require password to open. A recruiter or an upload form cannot open a locked file, and CitedCV's free checker refuses a password-protected PDF with that reason.

Text saved as pictures

Word's Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded replaces text with images of it when a font cannot be embedded. Pages can export pages as images, which is a different export from PDF. Either way, the words stop being selectable, and a page that is an image is what Greenhouse warns about.

Edits and comments that ride along

• Word: Publish what set to Document showing markup prints tracked changes into the PDF; keep it on Document.
• Pages: comments and smart annotations are added only if you tick their checkboxes; leave them unticked.
• LibreOffice: Comments as PDF annotations exports comments; Comments in margin also scales the whole page down to fit them, according to the help page.

A file too large for the upload

Greenhouse cannot parse a resume larger than 2.5 MB. LibreOffice's help warns that Tagged PDF can increase file size by huge amounts and offers JPEG compression and a lower image resolution; Pages has an Image Quality menu where higher quality means a larger file. Greenhouse itself names resumes with many high-quality images as the kind that go over.

Converting on a phone

All three office suites have phone apps that write a PDF directly:

• Word on Android: open the file, tap the three-dot icon, File, Print, Select a printer, Save as PDF, then the PDF icon, choose a location and Save.
• Word on iPhone: tap the three-dot icon, Export, PDF, and choose where to save it.
• Google Docs app: Google lists PDF among the export formats on Android and on iPhone and iPad; on Android, Download under More next to the file saves a copy to the device.
• Pages on iPhone: tap the toolbar button Apple shows, then Export, PDF, then choose where to send or save it.

A photo of a paper CV is not a PDF of your CV, even if an app wraps it in one; retype it or export it from the original document.

Check the PDF in five steps

1. Open the PDF in a different app from the one that made it, such as a browser, so you see what a recruiter sees.
2. Drag across a line. If it highlights, the text is real text; if not, export again from the source.
3. Select all, copy and paste into a plain text editor. Your name and contact details should come out first, and each job should keep its title, employer and dates together.
4. Click every link: email, LinkedIn, portfolio.
5. Check the size and the page count: under 2.5 MB for Greenhouse, and the number of pages you meant to send.

If the paste comes out jumbled, the layout is the cause, not the export; the guide on a resume that is not parsing walks through the fixes.

What each vendor page says, read on 13 October 2026

• Microsoft Support, Save or convert to PDF or XPS: the Windows, Mac and web paths, the Options dialog, and the Mac note on Best for printing and hyperlinks.
• Microsoft Support, Save a PDF of your file on your mobile device: the Android print route and the iPhone Export route.
• Google Docs Editors Help, Create, view, or download a file: File, Download and the Chrome print fallback; How to use Google Docs: PDF among the Android and iPhone export formats.
• LibreOffice Help 26.8, PDF Export General: the menu paths, Tagged PDF, image compression, comments, and Hybrid PDF, which embeds the editable ODF file inside the PDF.
• Apple, Pages User Guide for Mac and iPhone: File, Export To and the password carry-over; Mac User Guide: File, Print, Save as PDF and Security Options.
• Greenhouse Support, Unsuccessful resume parse (updated 2 March 2026): the 2.5 MB limit and images.

When conversion is not the problem

• You are unsure whether to send a PDF at all. The PDF-or-Word guide answers that from each applicant tracking system's documentation.
• The CV was designed in Canva or a similar tool. Its download settings, such as Flatten PDF, are covered in the Canva guide.
• The form wants pasted text. Then the PDF does not matter; paste plain text and read it before you submit.
• You only have a scan. A PDF of a scan is still a picture; the text has to be retyped or rebuilt.

Next steps

Run the finished PDF through the free ATS CV checker, which reads it in your browser with no account. If you rebuild the CV in CitedCV instead, it exports PDF, DOCX and TXT itself, and each PDF and DOCX export is read back by a text extractor and compared with the CV it should carry. Then attach the file to an email that names it well.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Microsoft Support, Save or convert to PDF or XPS in Office desktop appssupport.microsoft.com/en-us/office/save-or-convert-to-pdf-or-xps-in-office-desktop-apps-d85416c5-7d77-4fd6-a216-6f4bf7c7c110
2. Microsoft Support, Save a PDF of your file on your mobile devicesupport.microsoft.com/en-us/word/save-a-pdf-of-your-file-on-your-mobile-device
3. Microsoft Support, Use a template to create a resumesupport.microsoft.com/en-us/word/use-a-template-to-create-a-resume
4. Google Docs Editors Help, Create, view, or download a filesupport.google.com/docs/answer/49114?hl=en
5. Google Docs Editors Help, How to use Google Docs (Android)support.google.com/docs/answer/7068618?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
6. LibreOffice Help, PDF Export Generalhelp.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/ref_pdf_export_general.html
7. Apple Support, Pages User Guide for Mac: Convert to Word, PDF, or another file formatsupport.apple.com/guide/pages/tance1161f26/mac
8. Apple Support, Pages User Guide for iPhone: Convert to Word, PDF, or another file formatsupport.apple.com/guide/pages-iphone/tance1161f26/ios
9. Apple Support, Mac User Guide: Save a document as a PDF on Macsupport.apple.com/guide/mac-help/save-a-document-as-a-pdf-on-mac-mchlp1531/mac
10. Greenhouse Support, Unsuccessful resume parsesupport.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse