How to Save an Outlook Email as a PDF (New Outlook, Classic, Mac, Web, Phone, and Automatic)

Outlook has no Save as PDF button. It has a print dialog, and the print dialog has a PDF printer in it, and that's the whole trick. The annoying part is that the dialog lives somewhere different in every version of Outlook, and Microsoft currently ships four of them.

So this guide is organized by version. Find yours, do the four clicks, done. Then there's a section on the things print-to-PDF quietly leaves out (attachments, mostly), one on doing a batch, and one on making Outlook do this by itself, which is what you want if you're saving emails every week rather than once.

If you're in Gmail, the Gmail version of this guide has the steps for that. The save an email as a PDF page has every client side by side.

Which Outlook do you have?

Quick check, because the steps differ:

• New Outlook for Windows. A toggle that says "New Outlook" at the top right, no File menu. This is the default on new Windows installs.
• Classic Outlook for Windows. Has a File menu at the top left. If you see File, you're here.
• Outlook for Mac. File menu in the Mac menu bar.
• Outlook on the web. outlook.com, outlook.office.com or outlook.live.com in a browser.
• Outlook mobile. The iPhone or Android app.

New Outlook for Windows

1. Open the email.
2. Click the three dots (More actions) at the top right of the message.
3. Choose Print. A print preview opens.
4. Click Print again, and in the printer list pick Microsoft Print to PDF.
5. Click Print, name the file, choose a folder, save.

The new Outlook has a Save as option in that same three-dot menu, and people reach for it expecting a PDF. It saves an .eml file, which is the raw email. Useful for moving a message into another mail program, useless for sending to a client. For a PDF, it has to be Print.

Classic Outlook for Windows

1. Open the email, or select it in the message list.
2. Go to File > Print.
3. Under Printer, choose Microsoft Print to PDF.
4. Click Print. A save dialog appears; name the file and pick a folder.

Classic Outlook's File > Save As offers .msg, .txt, .html and .mht, but no PDF. Same story as above: print is the route.

There's a Print Options button in that dialog with a checkbox for "Print attached files". Ticking it sends the attachments to the printer as well, which with a PDF printer means a separate save prompt per attachment, each as its own file. They still don't end up inside the email's PDF. More on that below.

If Microsoft Print to PDF isn't in your printer list, it's been switched off in Windows. Search for "Turn Windows features on or off" in the Start menu and tick Microsoft Print to PDF.

Outlook for Mac

1. Open the email.
2. File > Print, or Cmd+P.
3. At the bottom left of the print dialog, open the PDF dropdown and choose Save as PDF.
4. Name the file and save.

Outlook for Mac also has File > Save As, which gives you an .eml, not a PDF. Same trap as Windows.

Outlook on the web

1. Open the email.
2. Click the three dots at the top right of the message and choose Print.
3. A preview opens in a new tab or window. Click Print.
4. In the browser's print dialog, set the destination or printer to Save as PDF (Chrome, Edge) or use the PDF dropdown (Safari on Mac).
5. Save.

In Chrome and Edge, open More settings and untick Headers and footers first, or every page gets the date and an outlook.office.com URL printed across the top.

Outlook on iPhone and Android

1. Open the email in the Outlook app.
2. Tap the three dots at the top right.
3. Tap Print.

On Android, choose Save as PDF in the printer dropdown and tap the download button. On iPhone, the print preview opens; tap the share icon and choose Save to Files.

The mobile PDF comes out narrower than the desktop one. Wide tables and two-column newsletters get squeezed. For anything where layout matters, do it from a computer.

What the PDF doesn't include

Printing captures what's on screen. That has three consequences that people discover a year later, when they go looking for something.

The attachments aren't in it. The PDF is the message. The signed contract that came attached is still in your mailbox, and if you leave the company or the mailbox gets cleaned up, the PDF is half a record. You have to save the attachments separately: click the paperclip on the message, or right-click an attachment and choose Save All Attachments. Then you have a PDF and some files in a folder, held together by nothing except your own naming discipline.

Blocked images print as gaps. Outlook blocks remote images from senders you haven't approved. The print preview shows exactly what Outlook shows, so those images are missing from the PDF too. Click "Click here to download pictures" at the top of the message before printing.

It happens only when you remember. Every email you didn't save is invisible. Nobody notices the gap until an auditor, a lawyer or a new colleague asks for the thread from March.

Saving a batch of emails as PDFs

Two situations here.

A pile of existing emails. In classic Outlook for Windows, you can select several messages (Ctrl+click, or Shift+click for a range), then go to File > Print with Microsoft Print to PDF. Outlook prints them as a single combined PDF, in list order. It's crude but it works for "everything from this client, as one document". The new Outlook and Outlook on the web don't do this; they print one message at a time.

If you have Adobe Acrobat (the paid one, not Reader), it installs an Outlook add-in that can convert a whole folder into a PDF portfolio with attachments included. That's the tool the legal world uses, and it's priced like it.

Emails that keep coming. Batch-printing today doesn't help with next week's emails. For that, you want a rule.

Making it automatic

Outlook rules can forward emails that match a condition, and Quicktion turns a forwarded email into a PDF in Google Drive.

You get an address like abc123@in.quicktion.io tied to a folder in your Drive. Anything forwarded there lands as its own subfolder:

Client contracts/
  2026-08-26_Signed SOW, Phase 2/
    email.pdf
    email.html
    SOW-phase-2-signed.pdf

email.pdf is the message with a header block (from, to, date, subject) and the body underneath, with images downloaded and embedded so they still render years later. email.html is the original, kept as a fallback. The attachments sit next to it under their original names. Folder names follow a pattern you set; the default {date}_{subject} sorts chronologically, and {sender} and {domain} are there if you'd rather file by who sent it.

To wire it up:

1. In Quicktion, create a Google Drive destination and pick the folder. It gives you the forwarding address.
2. In Outlook, create a rule: Settings > Mail > Rules on the web, or Home > Rules in the desktop app. Condition: from a sender, subject contains a word, has an attachment, whatever fits. Action: forward to your Quicktion address.
3. Send yourself a test email that matches. Check Drive.

The full rule walkthrough for each version of Outlook is in forward emails from Outlook, and the Outlook to Google Drive page covers the destination side.

If your company blocks auto-forwarding. Plenty of Microsoft 365 tenants do. In that case, an Outlook Quick Step turns "forward this to my Quicktion address" into a single click or a keyboard shortcut. You still choose each email yourself, so nothing about a review policy changes, but you stop typing the address forty times a day. Setup steps are in the same help article.

The honest limits: My Drive folders only, no Shared Drives yet. No backfill, so it saves from the moment the rule exists rather than reaching into old mail. And PDFs on the free plan carry a small "Saved with Quicktion" line at the bottom.

Manual vs automatic

For the one email you need right now, print it. For the emails you'll need in two years and don't know about yet, a rule beats a habit.

Frequently asked questions

How do I save an Outlook email as a PDF?

Open the email, open the print dialog (three dots then Print in the new Outlook and on the web, File then Print in classic Outlook and on Mac), and choose Microsoft Print to PDF or Save as PDF instead of a physical printer. Then name the file and save it.

Why can't I save an Outlook email as a PDF?

Three usual reasons. The new Outlook has no File menu, so the print command is under the three dots on the message. On Windows, Microsoft Print to PDF can be switched off under Turn Windows features on or off. And if the print preview is blank or the images are missing, Outlook blocked the sender's remote images; click to download them first, then print.

How do I save an Outlook email as a PDF with the attachments?

Print to PDF only captures the message body. The attachments have to be saved separately, from the paperclip on the message or by right-clicking and choosing Save All Attachments. If you want the email and its files kept together every time, forward it to Quicktion and both land in the same Google Drive folder.

Can I save many Outlook emails as PDFs at once?

In classic Outlook for Windows, select several messages and go to File then Print with Microsoft Print to PDF and they come out as one combined PDF. The new Outlook and Outlook on the web print one email at a time. For a folder that keeps growing, an Outlook rule that forwards new messages to Quicktion saves each one as its own PDF without you doing anything.

How do I save an Outlook email as a PDF automatically?

Create an Outlook rule that forwards matching emails to a Quicktion forwarding address tied to a Google Drive folder. Every email that matches is rendered to PDF and filed together with its attachments. If your company blocks auto-forwarding, an Outlook Quick Step turns the forward into one click.

How do I save an Outlook email as a PDF on my phone?

In the Outlook app, open the email, tap the three dots and choose Print. On Android pick Save as PDF as the printer. On iPhone tap the share icon in the print preview and choose Save to Files.

Next steps

One email: use the steps for your version of Outlook above and you're done.

Emails every week: set up a Drive destination, point an Outlook rule at it, and forward one message to see what the PDF looks like. The free plan covers 25 emails a month, no card.

Related: how to save emails from Outlook when the goal is a copy of your mailbox rather than a PDF, and save email attachments to Google Drive when it's the files you're after.