Troubleshoot PDFMaker | 7.0, 8.0, Acrobat 3D | Windows

Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker (the Convert To Adobe PDF button in the PDFMaker toolbar) is an add-in that creates dynamic PDF files from Microsoft Office applications. This feature installs with Adobe Acrobat Professional and Standard. PDFMaker uses Adobe PDF printer to a create a PostScript file. Then, it uses Adobe PDF printer interfaces with the Adobe Acrobat Distiller application to create a PDF file. You can also use Acrobat Distiller independently to create PDF files.

This document can help you troubleshoot problems that occur when you try to create PDF files from Office applications using Acrobat PDFMaker. While this document is specific to Microsoft Word, most of the troubleshooting procedures also apply to Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. For more information about Acrobat PDFMaker, see the Acrobat Help.

Before you begin troubleshooting, be sure that the version of Acrobat you are running is compatible with the version of Office you are running. Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Standard are compatible with Office 2003, 2002, and 2000. Acrobat 8.0 Professional and Standard are compatible with Office 2003, 2002, and 2000.

Acrobat PDFMaker uses the Adobe PDF printer, which in turn uses the Acrobat Distiller application to convert Word documents. So, the first step in troubleshooting is to determine if Acrobat Distiller is working correctly:

If you can create a PDF file with the Adobe PDF printer or Acrobat Distiller, but not with Acrobat PDFMaker, the problem could be with an Acrobat PDFMaker feature. To determine if any of these features causes the problem, disable them, and then try to create a PDF file:

If you determine that the problem is document-specific, troubleshoot as follows: Enable only the Acrobat PDFMaker features the document uses. For example, if the document contains only the heading styles Heading 1 and Heading 2, disable the other heading styles in the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box.

Switch to the Normal document view in Word, and then create the PDF file using Acrobat PDFMaker.

Re-create the Word document to eliminate any damage in it by doing one or more of the following:

• Copy and paste the content of the Word document into a new document, and then create the PDF file.
• Select all of the text in the document, change its font, and then save the document with a new name. Word rewrites the document, which may eliminate whatever element is conflicting with Acrobat PDFMaker. After you save the document, you can reformat it in the desired font.
• If the document was created in a version of Word other than the version you use to create the PDF file, make a small change to the document. Then save it with a new name. This procedure forces Word to rewrite the document, possibly eliminating any elements that conflict with Acrobat PDFMaker.

Re-create any custom heading styles in the document, and then create the PDF file.

Identify conflicting elements in the document:

PDFMaker can conflict with other macros, such as virus checkers or fax software. If other troubleshooting tasks fail, or if PDFMaker has problems after installing a third-party macro, troubleshoot conflicts with other macros. Macros known to cause incompatibilities include Duden Korrektor Plus 2.0, ViaVoice 10 and earlier, Personal Translator 2002 Office Plus, OfficeReady Stuffit, Leuchter Informatic AG WordPlus, and GoldMine Link to Word.

To determine if PDFMaker is conflicting with another macro, delete or deactivate other macros one at a time. Then try again to convert a document to a PDF file using PDFMaker. If the problem does not recur, contact the manufacturer of that macro.

The steps below are based on the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 825840, "How to Troubleshoot Problems When You Start or Work in Microsoft Office Word 2003." For more detailed information on troubleshooting Microsoft Word, visit the Microsoft website at www.microsoft.com and search for this article.

Important: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 256986 "Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry."

1. Start Word using the /a switch and add PDFMaker manually.

When you start Microsoft Word by using the /a switch, Word temporarily uses the default built-in settings for all options and prevents the loading of add-ins, preferences, customizations, and macros. This is referred to as Office Safe Mode. All Microsoft Office 2003 programs have a Safe Mode startup option.

For additional information about Office Safe Mode, visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base and search for article 291013: "WD2002: About Office Safe Mode in Word."

Note: If you change preferences, customizations, or macros during an /a switch session of Word, the changes you make are lost when you quit Word.

Exit all programs before you proceed with these steps.

Start Word by using the /a switch:

1. Choose Start > Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type: winword.exe /a .
3. Click OK. The Run dialog box closes, and Word starts.

Load PDFMaker manually:

1. Select Tools > Customize, and click the Commands tab.
2. Click Tools in the Categories panel.
3. Drag COM Add-ins from the Commands panel to the Tools menu while holding down the mouse button. When the Tools menu displays the menu commands, drag COM Add-ins just below the Customize option, and then release the mouse button.
4. Click Close.
5. Click COM Add-ins on the Tools menu.
6. 6. Click Add, locate the add-in (the PDFMaker Add-in is located at [Acrobat Installation Path] \PDFMaker\Office\PDFMOfficeAddIn.dll), and click OK.
7. Press Alt+F11 to start the Visual Basic Editor.
8. Press Ctrl+G to start the Immediate Window of Visual Basic Editor.
9. To start PDFMaker in Word, type Application.COMAddIns("PDFMaker.OfficeAddin").Connect = True .Close the Visual Basic Editor.
10. Verify that the Adobe PDF and Acrobat Comments menus now appear to the right of Help on the Microsoft Word menu bar.

Create a test Word document and start PDFMaker:

1. Type some text in the Word document.
2. Choose File > Save, and save the test document to the desktop.
3. Click Convert To Adobe PDF.

If you resolve the issue when you use the /a switch to start Word, remove each of the components that load during Word startup. Remove these components one at a time in the order that they appear in Word. The following components load during Word startup: Word auto macros, global template (Normal.dot), Add-ins (WLLs) and Templates in the Word Startup folder and the Office Startup Folders, COM add-ins, Word Data key in the Windows registry, Word Options key in the Windows registry, and Word Auto Macros.

Note: Microsoft Product Support Services has a Troubleshoot Utility (included in the Support.dot file) that automates the removal and restoration of the components that Word Startup loads.

For additional information about Support.dot, visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base and search for article 289506 "HOW TO: Install and Use the Support.dot Template in Microsoft Word 2002."

2. Rename Normal.dot template file.

To prevent the formatting, autotext, and macros that are stored in the global template (Normal.dot) from affecting the behavior of Microsoft Word and documents that you open, rename your global template (Normal.dot). When you do so, you can quickly determine whether the global template is causing the issue.

Important: When you rename the Normal.dot template, you reset several options to the default settings, including custom styles, custom toolbars, macros, and AutoText entries. Therefore, Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not delete your Normal.dot file.

Certain configurations may create more than one Normal.dot file. For example, this issue may occur if a computer runs more than one version of Word or if several workstation installations exist on the same computer.

Rename the Normal.dot file:

Note: Do not use the /a switch to restart Word after you complete these steps.

Microsoft Windows 2000:

1. Quit all instances of Word, including Outlook if Word is your e-mail editor.
2. Select Start > Search > For Files Or Folders.
3. In the Search For Files Or Folders Named box, type: Normal.dot .
4. In the Look In box, select your local hard disk.
5. Click Search Now to search for the file.
6. For each occurrence of the Normal.dot file that appears in the Search Results dialog box, do the following:
   1. Right-click the file, and select Rename.
   2. Give the file a new name (for example, OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot), and then press Enter.
7. On the File menu, click Close to quit the Search, and then restart Word.

On Microsoft Windows XP, do the following:

1. Quit all instances of Word, including Outlook if Word is your email editor.
2. Select Start > Search.
3. Under What Do You Want To Search For, select All Files And Folders.
4. In the All Or Part Of The File Name box, type: Normal.dot.
   
5. In the Look In box, choose your local hard disk (or an alternative user template location if you are running Word from a network server).
6. Click Search.
7. For each occurrence of the Normal.dot file that appears in the Search Results dialog box, do the following:
   1. Right-click the file, and select Rename.
   2. Give the file a new name (for example, OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot), and then press Enter.
8. On the File menu, click Close, and then restart Word.

If you resolve the issue when you rename your global template, the issue is a damaged Normal.dot template. You could have to change several settings to restore your options. If the Normal.dot file that you renamed contains customizations, such as styles, macros, or AutoText entries that cannot be easily re-created, try using the Organizer to copy those customizations from the old Normal.dot file to the new Normal.dot file.

For more information about how to use the Organizer, follow these steps:

1. Start Word.
2. Choose Help > Microsoft Word Help.
3. In the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, type Organizer.
4. Click Search to view the topics returned.

If you do not resolve the issue, use your old global template (Normal.dot) instead of the new global template. To use your old Normal.dot template, rename the new Normal.dot template back to Normal.dot. If you continue to experience issues with PDFMaker after working with this document, then contact Adobe Technical Support.

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