Convert batch of Word files to PDFs in Mac OS X

One option using the command line would be to use pandoc (which requires LaTeX for PDF generation).

1. Install pandoc and LaTeX. Because LaTeX is so big, I installed BasicTeX as recommended in the pandoc docs. With Homebrew and Homebrew Cask: brew install pandoc && brew install --cask basictex
2. Make sure the Word files are in .docx format. If they are in .doc format, you can convert them with OS X's built-in textutil: textutil -convert docx *.doc
3. On El Capitan you have to add the texbin utilities to your PATH: export PATH=/Library/TeX/texbin:"$PATH"
4. Convert: pandoc -o myfile.pdf myfile.docx

Because your question was regarding batch converting multiple files, you could easily put this into a loop:

#! /bin/bash
for file in *.doc; do
  textutil -convert docx "$file"

  # Account for the new `x` in `docx`
  pandoc -o "${file%doc}pdf" "${file}x"
done

You can use the docx2pdf command line utility to batch convert docx to pdf on macOS (or windows). It uses Microsoft Word's APIs to directly convert to PDF creating a perfect copy. It uses JXA (Javscript for Automation, basically AppleScript in JS) in macOS and win32com in Windows.

pip install docx2pdf
docx2pdf myfolder/

Disclaimer: I wrote this tool after struggling to find a cross-platform solution for batch converting docx to pdf with zero formatting issues since it directly uses Microsoft Word. https://github.com/AlJohri/docx2pdf

Provided you have MS Word (or any other app that can open MS Word files) installed, you can use Automator. Here is a step by step guide on how to set it up for your needs: http://aseriesoftubes.com/articles/how-to-batch-convert-doc-files-to-pdf-format-using-mac-osx-automator/

Brief overview of the whole process:

1. Open Automator
2. Create a new workflow
3. From the library panel on the left, select Files & Folders then double-click Get Specified Finder Items
4. Add the all the files to convert
5. From the library panel, now select Documents, then double click Convert Format of Word Documents
6. From the dropdown menu, select Portable Document Format (PDF)
7. Finally, click the Run button, and it will convert all the files and save them in the same folder where the original Word files are.