Keeping emails in a variety of formats is a business requirement of many organizations. So if an admin does not know how to save Outlook Office 365 email as PDF it can cause compliance violations.
Performing this transformation may seem easy at first but as soon as users try to attempt the manual method they realise the wide variety of limitations. So to help them out we have compiled many different strategies in a single writeup. Let us start from the simple method ant work our way up though the more powerful methods.
Take Screenshot and Save the Office 365 Email as PDF
If you only care to make a quick copy of only part of the email message then this method is the most suitable for you,
You can use the built in screenshot functionality of your machine to achieve that. Here are the steps for windows users
Step 1. Open Outlook and keep the email you need in PDF format on your screen unobstructed by any other window.
Step 2. Press Shift + Windows + S keys together to toggle the screenshot app.
Step 3. Hold your cursor and drag it to select all the parts you need.
Step 4. Release the cursor > open the clipboard > Press Ctrl + P
Choose Microsoft Print to PDF option from the list, adjust additional settings, and hit Print.
Copy Paste to Convert Office 365 Email to PDF
The basic idea is that we copy email content, paste in Word or any Document editor and save as PDF.
Step 1. So login to Outlook web, or open the mail on the Outlook Desktop client.
Step 2. Use your cursor or keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + A) to select Outlook email contents.
Step 3. Press Ctrl + C keys together to copy the content onto the digital clipboard.
Step 4. Open a new blank page on any document editor software and paste the email contents that are on your clipboard.
Step 5. Then, File > Save As > Select location > Name > Change Save as type format to PDF(*.pdf ) > Hit Save.
If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro subscription you can use a feature to get Outlook emails in PDF format lets see how.
How to Save Outlook 365 Email as PDF with Power Automate
Earlier such highly technical requirements could be fixed via the VBA script. However it is not possible now. Don’t worry as Power Automate can help you in this. Moreover, with the copilot feature you can prompt it to create a power automate flow that triggers on the arrival of a new mail, converts the contents into PDF and deposits the result into OneDrive or SharePoint.
However it is not recommended to deploy the AI flow directly, do the verification process, test flow and only then make it live.
Use Outlook to Get Office 365 Email in Portable Document Format
The following steps are valid for both Outlook Web and New Outlook Desktop client due to the similarity of their UI design
Step 1. Start by logging into/launching Outlook
Step 2. Select any email (only one)
Step 3. Click on the Print icon in the Home toolbar
Step 4. Expand the Destination / Printer selection option and pick
Step 5. Microsoft Print to PDF / Save as PDF option
Step 6. Configure other details like layout (portrait/landscape), copies, color, etc as per your requirement.
Step 7. Press Print
Step 8. In the “Save Print Output As” window, type a suitable name, select a suitable location and press Save.
How to Save Outlook Office 365 Email as PDF Professionally
SysTools Microsoft Office 365 Export tool that can perform the required task of converting Office 365 email to PDF in a few simple steps. Moreover, apart from the ease of use another added advantage for users is that this utility does mass organization wide conversions simultaneously.
A wide variety of filters allow admins to make the most accurate selection of data at the user level and from a particular time period.
Steps to Use the Professional Alternative
Step 1. Install a copy on your machine, start it up and select end points as Microsoft 365 and PDF for source and target respectively.
Step 2. Scroll to workload selection area and mark the box next to emails, then you can also apply the date filter if you want.
Step 3. Use the Source page to fill in required data and validate it.
Step 4. Likewise perform the Target path validation.
Step 5. Map the user via one of three options out of Fetch, Import or Download.
Step 6. Finally, preview the user list, mark, prioritize, validate and begin export.
Conclusion
Here we taught you how to save Outlook Office 365 email as PDF in a variety of ways. The manual methods described here are often limited to user level or are too technical even for experienced users. That is why we also gave you the instructions on how to use an automated utility.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q. Does saving in PDF preserve the email metadata?
A. No, saving an email as a PDF does not preserve full metadata. Only the visible part of the email are kept like (to, from, cc, etc) rest of all the information is lost. - Q. Is it possible to restore the emails from their PDF backup?
A. No Outlook cannot process the PDF as a legitimate email format. Moreover the new Outlook version lacks any sort of email importing capability so there is both a technical and functional limitation. - Q. Why is my Print icon is greyed out in Outlook?
Check if you have selected more than one email. Outlook by default only allows printing (thereby PDF conversion) of one email at a time. - Q. What happens to Attachments when I try to convert Office 365 email to PDF?
A. Attachments stay in their original format. - Q. Why can’t I open a VBA script in Outlook to make my own custom code snippet for Office to PDF conversion ?
A. Earlier such highly technical requirements could be fixed via the VBA script but now Microsoft has removed this feature. This marks a change in approach where the focus is more towards delivering highly used and accessible features over the niche highly technical parts.