How to Send a Word Document

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No matter your platform, there’s no shortage of ways to send a Microsoft Word document to anyone on the Internet. Most cloud services (such as Google Drive and Dropbox) feature the ability to send documents directly from their desktop and mobile apps. You can also attach a document to an email or Facebook chat. And if you have mail program set up on your computer, you can even send your document without leaving Microsoft Word.

1. Save your Word document to your computer.
2. Go to your email provider and compose a new email to your recipient.
3. Click the attachment button, which is usually a paperclip.
4. Select your document and add it to your message before sending the email.

Attaching a Document to a Gmail or Yahoo! Message

• Most free mail sites and apps are similar. These instructions may also help you use providers other than Gmail and Yahoo.

Click or tap “Compose”. In both mobile apps, the “Compose” icon is a pencil. [1] X Research source A new message window will appear.

• If you’re using the Yahoo! Mail app on a mobile device, tap the + sign, and then tap the second icon (a sheet of paper) in the resulting toolbar. [3] X Research source The file selection window should now appear.

• Choose “Insert from Drive” if the document is saved to your Google Drive.
• Choose “Attach File” if the document is saved to your phone or tablet.

• If you’re attaching from Google Drive, tap the file you want to attach, and then tap “Select”.

Address the email to the recipient. Enter the desired recipient’s email address into the “To:” field, then add your subject and message content.

Click or tap “Send”. When the recipient opens the email, they’ll find the option to open or download the file to their computer or mobile device.

Attaching a Document in Mail for iPhone or iPad

• You’ll be able to attach a document that’s on your device or in your iCloud Drive.
• If you have the Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive apps installed on your device, you’ll have the option to attach a document from one of those accounts.

Type an email address into the “To:” field. This should be the address of the person to whom you’ll be sending the document.

Type your message. Enter a subject into the “Subject” field and type a note to the recipient in the main text area.

Touch and hold your finger in the body of the message. A black bar will appear containing several options from which to choose. [5] X Research source

• If you don’t see an icon for the cloud service you use, tap “More,” and then select your service. Flip the switch to the “On” position to enable it, and then use the back button to return to the Locations screen.

Select the file and tap “Add Attachment.” You’ll be returned to the email message you previously composed. This message now has your document attached.

Attaching a Document in Mail for Mac

Launch the Mail app on your Apple device. To use this method, you’ll need to have the Mail app configured to send mail through your email account. If you haven’t already done so, do it now.

Press ⌘ Cmd + N to compose a new message. You could also click the New Message icon (a square with a pencil) or click File > New Message. [6] X Research source

Select the document and click “Choose File”. You can hold down the ⌘ Cmd key as you click if you want to select multiple files.

Address the email to the recipient. Type the recipient’s email address into the “To:” field, a subject in the “Subject:” field, and a note in the large text area.

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Send the email. Click the paper airplane icon at the top left corner of the message to send the email and its attached document.

Sharing a Document from Google Drive

• Mobile: Launch the Google Drive app on your device.
• Desktop: Log in to http://drive.google.com in your web browser.

• If you haven’t yet uploaded the document from your computer, click New > File Upload, and then double-click the Word document. [8] X Research source

• Another way to do this is to single-click the document and then click the Share icon (the outline of a person’s head with a plus sign.)

Type the email address of the person you want to receive your file. If this person is one of your Google contacts, you can just start typing their name and then select the correct person from the search results.

• Leave this alone if you’re sharing the document with someone and you both plan to make edits.

Change “Can Edit” to “Can View” if you want the person to be able to download their own copy but not edit yours.

Select “Done” or “Share” to share the document. An email will be sent to the recipient containing information on how to access the document. They’ll be able to view it online or download it to their computer.

Sharing a Document from Dropbox

• You’ll need to have a Dropbox account to use this method.
• You should also have the application installed on your device. If you’re using a computer, you can use the web version by signing in to http://www.dropbox.com.

• Mobile app: Tap the “+” icon and then select “Upload files.” Navigate to the document you want to upload, and then tap “Upload File.”
• Desktop app: If the folder where the file’s stored is not already synced with Dropbox, drag the file from its current location to the Dropbox folder.
• Dropbox.com: Navigate to the folder where you’d like to store the file, then click the “Upload” icon to select your document.

• Mobile: Tap the downward-pointing arrow next to your Document and select “Share.”
• Desktop: Right-click (or Ctrl + Click ) the document in the Dropbox application, then click “Share…”
• Dropbox.com: Hover the mouse over the document file and select “Share” (when the menu appears).

Select “Can View” from the permissions options. If you’re using a mobile device, you’ll see this option under “These People”. [10] X Research source

Type the email address of the person to whom you’d like to send the file. Enter this into the “To:” field. To add multiple recipients, separate each email address with a comma (,).

• If you’re using the Dropbox.com site, the button will say “Share.” An email will now be sent to the email address(es) you provided.

Attaching a Document to a Facebook Message

• For this method to work, both you and the person to whom you’d like to send the document need to have Facebook accounts.
• The Facebook Messenger app does not support attaching documents saved to your phone, other than photos or videos

• Click the mail icon at the top right area of Facebook and select “New Message.”
• Start typing the person’s name into the “To:” field and then click their name when it appears in the search results.

Click the paperclip icon at the bottom of the chat window. Now you’ll be able to navigate to the Word document on your computer.

Press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return to send the document. The recipient will be able to download the document by double-clicking the icon that appeared in the chat window.

Sharing in Word Online

• This method is similar to sharing a document from your OneDrive account. If your document is in OneDrive, navigate to the document to open it in Word Online.

Enter the recipient’s email address in the “To:” field. To add multiple recipients, separate each email address with a comma (,).

• If you want to share ongoing access to this document and want everyone on the Invite list to be able to make edits, leave this option alone.
• To share a read-only version of the document (cannot be edited by anyone else), click “Recipients can edit” and select “Recipients can only view.”

Type a note into the “Note” field. Think of this field as the body of an email. Type something here that will alert the recipient to what the email and document are about.

Click “Share.” An email will be sent to the recipient that contains a link to the document. With that link, the recipient can make changes to the document on Word Online (if you gave them permission to do so) or download the file to their computer.

Sharing a Document in Word 2016

• If you’re using an older version of Word, just click the File menu (or Office button in 2007) and select “Send” or “Send To” to send a Document.

Save changes to your document. To avoid sending an outdated version of your document, click “File” and then “Save”.

Click the “Share” icon. You’ll see this icon in the top right corner of Word. It looks like the silhouette of a person with a + sign. [13] X Research source

Click “Save to Cloud” if prompted. If you haven’t saved the document to the cloud, you’ll be prompted to do so. Word attempts to save your document to the cloud in case you want to share the document for editing instead of sending it as an attachment (more on this soon).

• If, instead of sending the file to the recipient, you’d like to be able to share online editing access of the document, choose “Invite People” instead. [14] X Research source Type the person’s email address when prompted, then click “Send” to email them an invitation to edit the document.

• Send a copy: Choose this option if the person to whom you’re sending the document needs to edit or add to the document.
• Send a PDF: Choose this option if you don’t want the document to be modified.

• To send the document to multiple people, separate each email addresses with a comma (,).

Community Q&A

You send a scanned paper the same way this article describes for a Word document. The file type may be different, but the process will be the same.

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Most cloud services include the ability to send documents via email or mobile applications. The instructions for the majority of cloud services are similar.

If you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can use Microsoft Office Online. The service includes a free, up-to-date version of Word accessible only on the web.

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