Saving a Word document as PDF, but with Bookmarks?

Question

In PDF's you can have a headings/bookmarks side panel that lets you jump to different chapters or sections (of course, not all PDF's, just those where these have been added).

In Word, I can "Save a Copy" as PDF, and I find the rendering to be really good/accurate. However, I would like to also create headings Bookmarks into the Word document that are saved into the PDF. I have tried creating Word Bookmarks, and this doesn't work, i.e., when I save to PDF, the bookmarks are not there (the "Show Bookmarks" option in PDF readers is greyed out, so they are not there).

How can I create Bookmarks in MS Word that will give me chapter/heading/section bookmarks in PDF when I save to a PDF?

Answer 1

You may do it like this :

• In Word, click the File tab and click Save As
• Select "*.pdf" from the Save as type drop-down list (and possibly set also the folder and file-name)
• Click Options and set "Create bookmarks using: Headings"
• Click Save.

Note : This option is only available for .docx documents.

Answer 2

At least in Word 2016, I don't get the Options menu when using the Save As method. To create the PDF with heading etc available you need to :

Go to File > Export > Create PDF/XPS

Click on Options...

You'll now see the Include non-printing information section which includes the option to Create bookmarks using: and you can select either Headings or Word bookmarks

Answer 3

Video instruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10f5YDNtsQs

Text instruction:

1. Go to "File" > "Save As" > "Browse"
2. In the new window, open the dropdown menu at the bottom and select "PDF"
3. A new "Options" button appears, click on it and check the box for "Create bookmarks using" together with the option "Headings"