How to export Outlook emails to PDF

How to export Outlook emails to PDF: select the messages in classic Outlook and print them to Microsoft Print to PDF, which asks for a file name per email, or drag the messages out as .msg files and convert them. SaveMail turns each .msg or .eml file into a searchable PDF in your browser, with headers and an attachment list, nothing uploaded. Neither route merges a folder into a single PDF; you do that afterward in a PDF tool.

Single email or a whole folder: two different jobs

One email takes thirty seconds with the print dialog. A folder of 300 is a different task, because Outlook has no "export folder to PDF" command in any version. The methods below scale differently.

For the single-message version of this task, see how to save an Outlook email as a PDF. The rest of this page is about more than one.

Have the email as a file (EML, MSG, MBOX)? Convert it to PDF in your browser: nothing is uploaded.

How to export Outlook emails to PDF with the print dialog, a folder at a time

1. In classic Outlook, click the folder and sort it the way you want the files numbered, for example by date received.
2. Press Ctrl-A to select every message, or Ctrl-click to pick some.
3. Click File → Print, choose Microsoft Print to PDF and Memo Style, then Print.
4. Windows opens a Save dialog for the first message. Name it, save, and the next dialog appears for the next message. Keep going until the queue is empty.

This is workable for 20 messages and painful for 200. Adobe Acrobat's PDF printer can be set to append to one file instead of asking each time, which is the only built-in-ish way to get a folder into a single PDF. Every PDF from this route has the body and the header lines but not the Message-ID and not the attachments.

Export the folder as files, then convert

The file route separates two steps that are each quick: getting the messages out of Outlook, and making PDFs.

1. Create a folder on disk and open it in File Explorer.
2. In Outlook, select the messages and drag them into that window. You get one .msg file per email (Outlook for Mac writes .eml).
3. Open savemail.app and drop the first file. The message renders with From, To, Cc, Date, Subject, Message-ID, the body and the attachment list.
4. Press Save as PDF, confirm the print dialog, and move to the next file.
5. For messages with attachments, click "download all" to get a ZIP alongside the PDF.

Each conversion happens in your browser tab; no file is uploaded and no account is needed, so the folder can contain client correspondence. The cost is that it is one message at a time; a merged multi-message PDF is not something SaveMail produces today.

New Outlook and Outlook on the web

The web interface prints one message at a time (More actions → Print → Save as PDF) and has no multi-select print. For a batch, download the messages as .eml files with More actions → Download, or open the account in classic Outlook for the drag method. The EML to PDF converter handles the downloaded files the same way as .msg.

How to combine multiple Outlook emails into one PDF

Whichever method produced the PDFs, merging is a PDF job, not an Outlook job. Acrobat, macOS Preview (drag pages between sidebar thumbnails) and most free PDF tools can combine files. Name the PDFs with a sortable prefix such as 2026-03-14_ before merging so the thread reads in order. Keep the attachment ZIPs with the merged file; a merged PDF holds the attachment names, not the files.

Limits to know before you start

• A .pst export is not a step toward PDF: browsers cannot read it. Export files or print from Outlook instead; the PST to PDF page explains the detour.
• Encrypted messages render as encrypted in SaveMail; print them from Outlook, where they are decrypted.
• Page size and margins come from the print dialog in both routes, so set them once and reuse.
• Compact mode in SaveMail hides quoted replies and signatures, which keeps a 40-message thread export from repeating the same quoted text 40 times.

Frequently asked questions