Sometimes, situations arise when you need to save Outlook emails as PDF files. For instance, for reporting and presentations, taking backup of your emails, or collecting evidence while conducting a workplace investigation. In such cases, you want to save Outlook emails as PDF files as this format is easier to work with.
In this post, we’ll be providing ways for saving Outlook emails as PDF files. Below, you’ll find stepwise procedure to save emails in Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019, and Outlook for Mac in the PDF format.
Steps for Saving Outlook Email as PDF in Outlook 2013, 2016, and 2019
If you are using Windows 10, you can easily save emails as PDF in Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019 by following these steps:
- Open Outlook and select the email that you want to save as PDF.
- Open the File tab and click Print.
- Under Printer, click the drop-down menu and select Microsoft Print to PDF. Then, click Print.
- In the Save Print Output As window that pops up, select the location where you want to save the PDF file, and click Save.
If you are using other version of Windows OS, follow the given steps to save Outlook email as a PDF:
- Open Outlook and select the email that you want to save as PDF.
- Open the File tab and click Save As.
- In the Save As window that opens, select HTML from the drop-down menu and save the email as an HTML file in the desired location.
- You can now convert this HTML file into PDF by using MS Word.
Steps for Saving Outlook Email as PDF in Outlook 2010
If you want to save email as PDF in Outlook 2010, you have to save the email in HTML format first, and then convert this HTML file into PDF. You can do this by following these steps:
- Open Outlook and select the email you want to save as PDF.
- Open the File tab and select Save As.
- In the Save As window that pops up, select the location where you wish to save Outlook message as a PDF file.
- Click the Save as Type drop-down menu and click HTML. Then, click Save.
- Open Microsoft Word. Go to the File tab and click Open. Then select the HTML file you saved in the previous step.
- Open the File tab and click Save As. Then, enter the location where you want to save the PDF file.
- In the Save As window that pops up, open the Save as Type dropdown menu and select PDF. Then click Save.
Steps for Saving Outlook Email as PDF in Outlook 2007
To save email as PDF in Outlook 2007, you need to manually copy the email text in Outlook and save it as PDF by using Microsoft Word. For this, follow these steps:
- Open Outlook and select the email you want to save as PDF.
- Copy the email text. You can use Ctrl + A and Ctrl + C
- Open a blank document in Microsoft Word and paste the copied text in it.
- Click the Microsoft Office button, select Save As, and then click PDF or XPS.
- Under Save as Type, select PDF and click OK.
- Click Publish to save the file as PDF.
Steps for Saving Outlook Email as PDF in Outlook for Mac
- Open Outlook and select the email you want to save as PDF.
- Right-click the email and select Print.
- In the new window that pops up, select PDF from the drop-down menu, and click Save as PDF.
- Enter the location where you want to save the PDF file and click Save.
Limitations of Manual Methods
Saving Outlook emails as PDF files manually is easy when you have to save only a few emails. However, if you have to manually save hundreds or thousands of emails in PDF format, it is a tedious and time-consuming task. Some limitations of manual methods are:
- You can’t save Outlook emails as PDF files if the Outlook is not working or the PST file is corrupt.
- Difficult to organize the emails after saving as there are no naming convention options for the emails such as subject + date, from + subject + date, etc.
- Limited features for sorting and filtering emails.
- In Outlook 2007 and 2010, there is no option to save Outlook message as a PDF file
Alternate Solution - Use Outlook PST Recovery Tool
In case your Outlook is not working, the PST file is corrupt, or you want to save a large number of Outlook emails as PDF files, you can use an advanced PST recovery tool such as Stellar Repair for Outlook. This software repairs corrupt PST files, extracts all the emails and other items from PST, and save them in PDF and various other file formats.
Stellar Repair for Outlook offers the following benefits:
- Recovers deleted emails from PST and save them in PDF file format.
- Allows bulk conversion of Outlook emails to PDF.
- Saves entire email folders as individual PDF files in a few clicks.
- Provides option to search for the desired emails based on different email fields (From, To, Subject, etc.).
- Allows you to select the naming convention for the saved PDF files.
- Offers multiple naming conventions such as Subject, Subject + Date, From + Subject + Date, etc.
To learn how to use this software, refer to the video guide below.
Conclusion
You may want to save Outlook emails in PDF format for reports or presentations and for back up purposes. However, there is no direct feature in Outlook to save emails in PDF format. You can use the manual solutions mentioned in this post to save Outlook emails as PDF files. But, if the PST file is corrupted or Outlook application is not working, you’re not able to save the emails as PDF. In such a case, you can use a third-party PST recovery tool to recover and save Outlook emails as PDF.