Add Right-Click Save as PDF in Windows Explorer

Question

I'm looking for a way to be able to add some options to the Right Click Context menu in Windows 7. I really don't have much experience in programming much but I am very eager and willing to learn.

Specifically I'd like to be able to Right Click a word document and have it convert or save as a .PDF file. I want to be able to convert existing documents into PDF format. The documents are 99% of the time going to be Microsoft Word documents so if there is a way to automate that, guidance there is appreciated.

I'm aware there are other methods of doing this such as downloading a "PDF Printer" but I would rather avoid that method if I could. I would also like to avoid downloading more software to install on user's PC's if possible as well.

Hopefully I am not being very demanding but I really do appreciate any help or guidance you can offer.

(As a Bonus I'd like to see if I can also get the option to Saves as PDF and Send as an attachment if possible.)

Answer 1

Use the command line utility of Total Doc Converter X together with a send-to batch.

• DownloadTotal Doc Converter X
• Since you don't want to install anything, you have to extract it with uniextract (7-zip won't work).
  Or if you trust me, just download the extracted .exe
• Copy DocConverterX.exe to C:\somefolder\DocConverterX.exe or whatever you want
• press Win+R and type shell:sendto

• create a new text file and copy & paste the following code

  @echo off
  set input="%~1"
  set output=%input:.doc=.pdf%
  "C:\somefolder\DocConverterX.exe" %input% %output%
  

• save it as doc2pdf.cmd (Note: The extension is now a .cmd)

Usage: Right-click any DOC file and choose Send to » doc2pdf.cmd

Upside: No need to install anything like a pdf printer, Microsoft Word or Ghostscript
Downside #1: Some files are well converted and some not. Maybe you will find a better one later
Downside #2: Its shareware. But it seems this doesn't apply to the command line version

Answer 2

Look at this article on how to use VBScript to save a Word document as PDF

And this article on how to add items to the context menu

Im sure you can combine the two to do what you are looking for. Not the most elegant solution, but it should work.

Answer 3

Office 2010 allows you to save as a PDF. What version of office are you using?