MacOS Automator + Applescript solution for exporting docx to pdf

Question

Scratching my head after reading lots of different threads on this and tried a bunch of scripts but none seem to work.

I'd like to use Automator to automate Word 2016 conversion of a selection of docx files to pdf.

Used the following Automator Service:

Used the following script:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application id "com.microsoft.Word"
        activate
        open input
        set doc to name of active window
        set theOutputPath to (input & ".pdf")
        save as active document file name theOutputPath file format format PDF
    end tell
end run

Which results in error: Microsoft Word got an error: active document doesn’t understand the “save as” message.

Answer 1

The main issue is that input is a list. You have to use a repeat loop to process each file separately

I added a line to close the current document after having been converted

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application id "com.microsoft.Word"
        activate
        repeat with aFile in input
            open aFile
            set theOutputPath to ((aFile as text) & ".pdf")
            tell active document
                save as it file name theOutputPath file format format PDF
                close saving no
            end tell
        end repeat
    end tell
end run

Answer 2

To prevent the problem discussed in @vadian's answer, save the file first to Word's default folder (that's usually ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Documents) and then move the file somewhere else.

on run {input, parameters}
    repeat with aFile in input
        tell application "System Events"
            set inputFile to disk item (aFile as text)
            set outputFileName to (((name of inputFile) as text) & ".pdf")
        end tell

        tell application id "com.microsoft.Word"
            activate
            open aFile
            tell active document
                save as it file name outputFileName file format format PDF
                close saving no
            end tell
            set defaultPath to get default file path file path type documents path
        end tell

        tell application "System Events"
            set outputPath to (container of inputFile)
            set outputFile to disk item outputFileName of folder defaultPath
            move outputFile to outputPath
        end tell
    end repeat
    return input
end run