How to Convert Outlook Email to PDF? Complete Guide

What you need to do	Recommended method	Outlook required?	Attachments
Convert one Outlook email to PDF	Microsoft Print to PDF	Yes	Not automatically included as PDF pages
Convert a few emails to PDF	Microsoft Print to PDF	Yes	Usually requires separate handling
Convert an Outlook folder to PDF	Outlook VBA macro	Yes	Depends on the macro/workflow
Convert many Outlook emails in bulk	Outlook email to PDF converter	Depends on the tool and source file	Use a tool that explicitly supports attachments
Convert emails stored in Outlook data file i.e., ost or pst.	Dedicated PST to PDF converter	May not be required	Depends on the selected conversion options
Convert confidential or large mailbox data	Local desktop conversion	Depends on the method	Depends on the conversion method

Method 1: Microsoft Print to PDF: Free

If you want to convert Outlook email to PDF only, you don’t need a third-party converter. Windows has Microsoft Print to PDF, which you can access from the Print menu in Outlook.

Steps to save an Outlook email as PDF

Step 1. Launch Microsoft Outlook (Classic) on your system.

Step 2. Open the email you want to convert and click on the File tab.

Step 3. Next, click on the Print option and choose Microsoft Print to PDF under Printer head.

Step 4. After that, click on the Print option.

Step 5. Select the folder where you want to save the PDF.

Step 6. Provide the file name and click on the Save button.

Outlook will generate a PDF with the printable content of the selected email.

This makes Microsoft Print to PDF good for converting one or a few Outlook emails at a time, but not for bulk conversion.

Method 2: Convert Outlook Email Folders into PDF File Using VBA Macro

If you have a large number of messages in a folder in Outlook and you want to save each one as a PDF without printing them all by hand, an Outlook VBA macro can do the job for you.

This approach is helpful when:

• You must have the Classic Outlook desktop installed already.
• Emails are in an Outlook folder.
• You want a way that’s free.
• You need to automate the repetitive creation of pdfs.

Step 1. Launch Classic Outlook application on your system.

Step 2. Now, in Outlook interface, press the Alt + F11 buttons in keyboard to open the VBA editor.

Step 3. After that, click the Insert and add a new module.

Step 4. Please paste below the tested VBA macro.

Using the Macro

Option Explicit

Sub ConvertCurrentFolderEmailsToPDF()

Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
Dim olFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim olItem As Object
Dim mail As Outlook.MailItem

Dim wordApp As Object
Dim wordDoc As Object

Dim outputFolder As String
Dim tempFolder As String
Dim tempHTML As String
Dim pdfPath As String
Dim baseName As String
Dim safeName As String

Dim i As Long
Dim converted As Long
Dim skipped As Long

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

Set olApp = Outlook.Application
Set olFolder = olApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder

If olFolder Is Nothing Then
MsgBox “Please open the Outlook folder containing the emails first.”, _
vbExclamation, “No Folder Selected”
Exit Sub
End If

‘ Create output folder on Desktop
outputFolder = Environ$(“USERPROFILE”) & “\Desktop\Outlook PDFs\”

If Dir(outputFolder, vbDirectory) = “” Then
MkDir outputFolder
End If

‘ Create temporary HTML folder
tempFolder = Environ$(“TEMP”) & “\OutlookPDFTemp\”

If Dir(tempFolder, vbDirectory) = “” Then
MkDir tempFolder
End If

‘ Start Microsoft Word
Set wordApp = CreateObject(“Word.Application”)
wordApp.Visible = False

For i = 1 To olFolder.Items.Count

Set olItem = olFolder.Items(i)

‘ Process only email messages
If TypeName(olItem) = “MailItem” Then

Set mail = olItem

On Error Resume Next

‘ Create a safe filename
baseName = Format(mail.ReceivedTime, “yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss”) _
& “_” & mail.Subject

safeName = CleanFileName(baseName)

If Len(safeName) > 150 Then
safeName = Left$(safeName, 150)
End If

tempHTML = tempFolder & safeName & “_” & CStr(i) & “.html”
pdfPath = outputFolder & safeName & “_” & CStr(i) & “.pdf”

‘ Save Outlook email as HTML
mail.SaveAs tempHTML, olHTML

If Err.Number <> 0 Then
Err.Clear
skipped = skipped + 1
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
GoTo NextItem
End If

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

‘ Open HTML in Word
Set wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open( _
FileName:=tempHTML, _
ReadOnly:=True, _
AddToRecentFiles:=False)

‘ Export Word document as PDF
wordDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat _
OutputFileName:=pdfPath, _
ExportFormat:=17, _
OpenAfterExport:=False, _
OptimizeFor:=0, _
Range:=0, _
Item:=0, _
IncludeDocProps:=True, _
KeepIRM:=True, _
CreateBookmarks:=0, _
DocStructureTags:=True, _
BitmapMissingFonts:=True, _
UseISO19005_1:=False

wordDoc.Close SaveChanges:=False
Set wordDoc = Nothing

‘ Delete temporary HTML
If Dir(tempHTML) <> “” Then
Kill tempHTML
End If

converted = converted + 1

End If

NextItem:

Next i

‘ Close Word
wordApp.Quit
Set wordApp = Nothing

MsgBox converted & ” email(s) converted successfully.” & vbCrLf & _
skipped & ” email(s) skipped.” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
“PDF files saved to:” & vbCrLf & _
outputFolder, _
vbInformation, “Conversion Complete”

Exit Sub

ErrorHandler:

On Error Resume Next

If Not wordDoc Is Nothing Then
wordDoc.Close SaveChanges:=False
End If

If Not wordApp Is Nothing Then
wordApp.Quit
End If

Set wordDoc = Nothing
Set wordApp = Nothing

MsgBox “The conversion stopped because of an error:” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
Err.Description, _
vbCritical, “Conversion Error”

End Sub

Private Function CleanFileName(ByVal FileName As String) As String

Dim InvalidChars As Variant
Dim Character As Variant

InvalidChars = Array(“\”, “/”, “:”, “*”, “?”, “”””, “<“, “>”, “|”)

For Each Character In InvalidChars
FileName = Replace(FileName, Character, “_”)
Next Character

‘ Remove leading/trailing spaces
FileName = Trim$(FileName)

‘ Prevent Windows reserved filenames
If Len(FileName) = 0 Then
FileName = “Outlook_Email”
End If

CleanFileName = FileName

End Function

Step 5. Now, press the Ctrl + S button.

Step 5. Return to Outlook.

Step 5. Open the folder you want to convert, such as Inbox, Sent Items, or a custom folder.

Step 5. Run ConvertCurrentFolderEmailsToPDF.

Step 5. The PDFs will be created in: Desktop\Outlook PDFs\

Note: You must test macro with the exact Outlook environment and workflow you publish. If the final solution uses a different VBA method for PDF export, replace the sample above with the verified production macro before publishing.

Method 3: Convert Many Outlook Emails and Attachments to PDF

If you have a large number of Outlook emails to convert, or your messages are saved in a Outlook data file then manually printing each message may not be practical. A dedicated Outlook OST converter can be used to load the Outlook data file or Outlook mailbox data and convert the same folders into PDF files.

Advik Outlook OST Converter is one such program that claims to export Outlook emails to PDF files in bulk.

This approach works especially well when you need to:

• Convert a whole Outlook mailbox or certain folders.
• Bulk convert Outlook email to PDF.
• Convert thousands, or hundreds of messages.
• Process messages in Outlook data file.
• Convert with various email filters.
• Maintain the mailbox’s folder structure in the output.
• If supported, convert email attachments to your conversion workflow of choice.

   

How to Convert Outlook emails to PDF in bulk

See, how you can export emails from Outlook to PDF files using Advik’s Outlook data file conversion software;

Step 1. Launch the suggested conversion tool on your Windows computer.

Step 2. Click on the Convert Configured Outlook mailbox data and click Next.

Step 3. Now, it will fetch complete Outlook profile including your mailboxes, select the mailbox folders that you want to process.

Step 4. After that, choose PDF as the saving format from the list.

Step 5. Choose the destination folder.

Step 6. Apply available filtering or folder selection options if you only need specific emails.

Step 7. Click on the Next to start the conversion.

The software processes the selected Outlook data and saves the converted messages in PDF format.

The software will start converting emails from Outlook to PDF automatically.

Once the software exports all the emails, it will display a complete log report.

Watch How to Convert Outlook Email to PDF Files