How to convert an email to PDF
With Drag & Print you right-click the e-mail file and pick Convert to PDF and rename. A couple of seconds later a PDF appears next to the original, keeping the look of the message: colours, bold text, tables and logo stay as you saw them in your mail program.
The original e-mail is neither changed nor deleted: the PDF is a new file.
How to save an Outlook email as PDF
You do not have to save it to the computer first. Switch the Drop Zone on in the settings and drag the message straight out of the Outlook list into the dashed box: the PDF is saved into the folder you chose.
It is the one case the right-click cannot cover, because a message open in Outlook does not exist as a file on disk yet.
How to convert an MSG file to PDF
The .msg format is how Outlook saves a single message. Drag & Print opens it and makes a PDF from the right-click menu, without opening Outlook and without going online.
It also works on several .msg files at once: they are handled one after another and, if one gives trouble, the others are still done.
How to convert an EML file to PDF
.eml is what Thunderbird, Apple Mail and most webmail services give you when you download a message. It converts like a .msg: right-click, Convert to PDF and rename.
The PDF carries sender, recipients, subject, send date and the list of attachments at the top.
How to merge an email and its attachments into one PDF
In the settings, tick Include mail attachments. From then on the message's attachments — the Word file, the spreadsheet, the photo — are converted as well and appended to the same PDF: you get a single document, the message first and the attachments after it.
It is how you keep a covering e-mail and the contract it carried together, without pasting anything by hand.
How to rename files with the date automatically
Drag & Print puts the date in front of the name as year.month.day, two digits each: 25.03.12 - Quote Rossi.pdf. You switch it on with Enable renaming and it applies to every file you hand it.
You can use today's date, the date the e-mail was sent, or a fixed date picked from a calendar — handy when you file a whole case from one particular day in one go.
How to batch rename files with the same prefix
You need renaming templates. Open Manage templates, make a rule with the prefix you want (say C2451_) and an optional suffix, tick it, and choose Use a custom template.
Then select every file, right-click once, and each one comes out as C2451_Quote.pdf. The original name stays in the middle: the template only adds to the two sides.
How to convert Word, Excel and PowerPoint to PDF from the right-click menu
After installation the entry appears in the Windows right-click menu on every supported format: .doc .docx .xls .xlsx .ppt .pptx and their less common relatives, plus OpenOffice, text and images.
Office documents need Office installed, because the program leans on it to convert them. E-mails and images do not.
How to sort files by date when the date is in the filename
Put the date in front of the name and write it largest unit first — year, month, day — and alphabetical order becomes chronological order. Windows sorts files by name and lines them up by date on its own, with no change of column or view.
That is why Drag & Print writes 25.03.12 and not 12-03-2025: the latter, sorted alphabetically, would group every 12th day of every year together.
Free software to archive emails as PDF on Windows
Drag & Print is free, runs on Windows 10 and 11 and sends nothing over the internet: conversion happens on your own computer and no file leaves it. Remote images inside e-mails are not even downloaded.
It converts more than thirty formats, renames with the date or with a prefix of your own, and installs in one go with the right-click entry ready to use.
If something goes wrong
The cases that come up most often, and what to do.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| There is no entry at all in the right-click menu | Click Show more options at the bottom of the menu. If it is not there either, the file is of an unsupported kind: the entry only appears on the formats in the list. |
| “Neither conversion nor renaming is active” | You have switched both functions off: the file would stay identical. Open the settings and switch at least one back on. |
| “File format not supported” | That kind of file cannot be converted. The original file has not been touched. |
| The PDF is nowhere to be seen | Look in the folder where the original is: that is where the PDF is born. Only e-mails dragged out of Outlook go into the save folder. |
| The file is not renamed at all | You picked Usa modello personalizzato but no template is ticked, or you switched the template off from the menu next to the clock. Put the tick back in the manager, or go back to Rinomina con data odierna. |
| The template entry is missing from the menu next to the clock | No template has the star. Open the manager and click the star on the row you use most: from then on the entry appears. |
| The name has a date that makes no sense | Nearly always the custom date from an earlier job is still set. Put Rinomina con data odierna back. |
| I drag from Outlook and nothing happens | Drop the file inside the dashed box, not on the title bar. If the window disappears behind Outlook, use the pin at the top right to keep it in front. |
| The installer says the program is in use | Nothing to do: the installation closes the old version by itself and carries on. |
| An error you do not understand | The message always carries the path of a log file. Pass it to whoever supports you: the exact reason is inside. |