How to send PDF documents

You have to share a PDF document with some work colleagues or some customers but, being a particularly “bulky” file in terms of disk space, you don’t know how to do it? Have you read that it is possible to share PDF files on WhatsApp and Messenger but can’t find the right option to do it? Don’t worry, if you want, I’ll be here to help you.

In fact, if you dedicate a few minutes of your free time to me, I can explain how to send PDF documents regardless of their “weight” and source and destination devices. So whether you want to send files of a few KB or several MB, whether you want to do it from your PC, smartphone or tablet, it doesn’t matter: in the next lines you will find explained everything you need to know on the subject.

Come on then: roll up your sleeves, read the instructions below and try to put them into practice. I’m sure if you do, you won’t have the slightest problem sharing your PDFs with colleagues, clients or friends. Happy reading and good luck for everything!

Index

• How to send large PDF files
• How to send PDF documents with WhatsApp
• How to send PDF files on Messenger
• How to send PDF documents from Android
• How to send PDF documents from iPhone
• How to send PDF files to Kindle

How to send large PDF files

Do you need to send large PDF files or maybe send a significant amount of PDF documents all at once and the emailing failed? In this case, I would recommend the use of a file-sharing service.

To be precise, I recommend using WeTransfer which allows you to upload files up to 2GB in weight online and quickly get links to them, to share via email, chat or wherever you want. It does not require registration (which is optional) and protects users’ privacy by deleting files from its servers after 7 days of uploading.

To upload PDF files to WeTransfer, all you have to do is connect to the main page of the service using any of the most popular web browsers (eg. Chrome ) and accept the conditions of use of the service and cookie policy. If this is not the first time you use the service, you may have to decline the invitation to register or switch to the paid Pro plan, which allows you to password downloads and unlock other extra features. Then click on the Add file button and select the PDFs to upload online (or drag them directly into the browser).

Later, since the option to send links via email is selected by default, I recommend that you click on the (…) button, at the bottom left, and check the option Get the link for the transfer, in so you can get a link to your PDFs that you can share with more people on any communication channel (without even having to provide your email address).

Finally, click again on the button (…), then on the Get a link button and, at the end of the upload, you will get the link to share with the people you want to download your PDFs. Once you have visited the link in question, to start downloading the documents, simply accept the WeTransfer terms of use, the cookie policy and click on the Download button. Convenient, right?

How to send PDF documents with WhatsApp

Have you heard that it is possible to send PDF documents with WhatsApp but you are not sure how to do it? Don’t worry, I assure you it’s a no-brainer.

First, launch the WhatsApp app on your Android device or iPhone, select the Chat tab and open the conversation in which you intend to send the PDF. Once this is done, if you are using Android, press the paper clip icon located at the bottom right, touch the Document option from the menu that opens, select the PDF to send and confirm the sending; if, on the other hand, you are using an iPhone, press the + button located at the bottom left, touch the Document option from the menu that opens, select the PDF to send and confirm. On both Android and iPhone you may be asked for permission to access the files on the device’s memory: accept.

Alternatively, please note that you can select a PDF file from an external application (e.g. the file manager you use on your smartphone/tablet) and use the operating system‘s sharing menu to send it directly to a contact or a WhatsApp group: Find all the details of the case in the chapters on how to send PDF documents from Android and how to send PDF documents from iPhone of this tutorial.

If you prefer to act from a PC, then from WhatsApp Web or from the WhatsApp client for Windows and macOS, the procedure you need to follow is just as simple: access WhatsApp, select the chat in which to share the PDF, press the paper clip icon located in the bottom left, choose the document option (the sheet on a blue background) from the menu that is proposed, select the PDF to send and confirm.

How to send PDF files on Messenger

Even Messenger, Facebook’s instant messaging platform, allows you to easily share PDF files with others.

If you use Messenger on a smartphone or tablet, you cannot currently use the official app of the service for Android or iOS / iPadOS, as it does not yet support direct PDF sharing (you can only share links for downloading documents, such as those generated by the service mentioned at the beginning of this guide ).

To bypass this restriction on Android, you can install Messenger Lite: the “lightened” variant of Messenger for less powerful devices, which is nothing more than the Web version of the service “packaged” in an app; is officially released by Facebook and can be downloaded both from the Play Store and from alternative stores (for devices that do not have Google services).

Once you have installed the Messenger Lite app, therefore, open it and log in to your Facebook account, then select the Chat tab and open the conversation in which to share the document. Once this is done, press the (+) button located at the bottom left, select the File item from the menu that opens, grant the app permission to access the memory of the device in use, choose the PDF to send and confirm.

On iPhone and iPad, at the time of writing, the Lite version of Messenger is not yet available: this means that you have to act as a browser, via the Web version of the service. So if you have an Apple-branded mobile device and want to share a PDF on Messenger, open Safari and connect to messenger.com.

You will be greeted by a screen that invites you to download the Messenger app: to access the service directly from the browser, press the AA icon located at the top left and select the item Request desktop site from the menu that opens. Once logged into Messenger, select the chat in which to share the PDF, press the photo-shaped icon at the bottom, choose the Browse option from the menu that opens, select the PDF to send and confirm, via the paper airplane icon. A little cumbersome, but it works!

From a PC, things get easier: to share a PDF on Messenger, just connect to messenger.com from the browser, log in to your Facebook account, select the chat in which to share the PDF, press the shaped icon the photograph (below), choose the PDF to be sent and press the icon of the ‘ paper airplane.

How to send PDF documents from Android

If you are interested in knowing how to send PDF documents from Android and none of the solutions mentioned so far seems to be right for you, I would like to point out that you can use the operating system‘s sharing menu to select your documents and send them to any app: those of e-mail, those of messaging, those related to cloud storage platforms and so on.

To take advantage of this possibility, open the app in which your PDF is currently located (e.g. a file manager such as Google Files ), perform a long tap on it (to select it) and press on the share icon, which generally it is represented by dots connected to each other or it can be hidden in the menu with the three dots or the three horizontal lines. Finally, choose the app in which to share the document and that’s it. If with the long tap you are unable to select the file, make a single tap to open it and look for the share button on the screen that is proposed to you.

Alternatively, you can take advantage of Bluetooth or other wireless systems to share a file from your smartphone or tablet to another device: I told you about it in more detail in my guide on how to transfer files from Android.

If, instead, you want to convert a PDF document from your device and then share it, do this: Open the content you want to convert to PDF (eg. A picture or a web page), simply tap on ‘ share’s icon or menu this in the app you are using and invoke the print command from the menu that appears.

Then choose the Save to PDF option from the menu for choosing the printer, press the PDF button and select the location to export the document. For more details, check out my Android virtual PDF printer tutorial.

How to send PDF documents from iPhone

The procedure for sending PDF documents from iPhone does not differ much from the one just seen together for Android.

All you have to do is open the app containing the PDF you want to share (eg the file manager File, included “standard” in iOS), perform a long tap on it (in order to select it) and choose the share icon or item from the menu that appears on the screen (the share icon is usually represented by a square with an arrow inside ). Once this is done, choose the app or contact to share the file with and that’s it.

Still from the same menu, if you want to share files with other Apple devices, you can take advantage of the AirDrop technology of the Cupertino giant: I have talked about it in detail in a dedicated guide.

If you want to transform a document into PDF from your iPhone, instead, open the content you want to transform into PDF (e.g. a photo or a web page), tap the share or menu icon in the app you are using and calls up the print command from the menu that appears.

Execute, therefore, zoom with two fingers on the thumbnail of the document displayed on the screen (in order to view it in full size), press on the share icon located at the top right and choose the Save to File option from the menu that opens, if you want to export the document to an iPhone folder (or iCloud Drive ), or any other app, to share the PDF document there. For more details, check out my iPhone virtual PDF printer tutorial.

How to send PDF files to Kindle

Would you like to send PDF files to your Kindle but don’t know how to do it? Don’t worry: using the Send Documents to Kindle via Email feature, you can do it all in just a few clicks. First, however, it is necessary to activate the function in question.

Then access the “My content and devices” section of Amazon, select the Preferences tab (at the top), expand the Personal document settings section (at the bottom of the page that opens) and write down the email address associated with your Kindle.

Once this is done, scroll down the page, click on the Add a new approved email address link and enter your email address (the one you want to use to send you PDFs on Kindle) in the box that appeared on the screen, then click on the button Add an address.

Well: now you just have to open your e-mail box and send an email (even empty) to the address of your Kindle containing the PDF you want to transfer to the ebook reader as an attachment. Within minutes, you’ll see the document appear in your personal library, ready to be read directly from your Kindle.

Alternatively, I would like to point out that you can “manually” upload documents to Kindle through programs such as Caliber, by connecting the device to your computer: everything is explained in my tutorials on how Caliber works and how to download books on Kindle.