Right-click the Word icon and choose Run as administrator.
Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker (the Convert To Adobe PDF button in the PDFMaker toolbar/tab) is an add-in that creates PDF files from Microsoft Office applications. This feature installs with Acrobat Professional and Standard.
This document can help you troubleshoot problems that occur when you try to create PDF files from Office applications using Acrobat PDFMaker. Although this document is specific to Microsoft Word, most of the troubleshooting procedures also apply to Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel.
Applicable to Office 2016 or Office 365 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Try the following steps to fix the problem:
Right-click the Word icon and choose Run as administrator.
If you see a User Account Control prompt, click Yes.
Open a blank document - choose Blank document template. Alternatively, you can open an existing Word document.
On the File menu, choose Options. The Word Options dialog box is displayed.
Choose Add-ins in the options list. In the Manage drop-down menu, select COM Add-ins, and then click GO.
In the COM Add-ins dialog box, select the Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin check box if it's not selected and then click OK.
Acrobat PDFMaker is crashing with Office 2016 and Office 365 on Windows after Office 2016's February update.
Adobe is investigating the problem and working with Microsoft to get it resolved as soon as possible. Meanwhile, to create PDFs, see the workaround here.
Before you begin troubleshooting, be sure that the version of Acrobat you are running is compatible with the version of Office you are running. For details, see Compatible web browsers and PDFMaker applications | Acrobat, Reader.
Acrobat PDFMaker (for MS Office 2003 and earlier) uses the Adobe PDF printer, which in turn uses the Acrobat Distiller application, to convert Word documents. Therefore, the first step in troubleshooting is to determine if Acrobat Distiller is working correctly:
Note: This method doesn't support advanced PDFMaker features, such as maintaining links and document structure.
Note: After you install the driver, then complete step 2. If you select the Adobe PDF printer, deselect "Do Not Send Fonts To 'Adobe PDF'" to create a PostScript file.
Open the messages.log file in the following folder for Windows (NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7): %AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\Distiller [version number]
Check the messages.log file for troubleshooting information:
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 is the cause of your problem, disable them. Then, try to create a PDF file:
If you determine that the problem is document-specific, troubleshoot as follows.
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.
Do one or more of the following:
Remove both Acrobat and Office or the specific Office application (Word, PowerPoint, or Excel). Reinstall Office or the specific Office application, and then reinstall Acrobat.
To remove Acrobat, use the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel. For instructions on how to remove Office, see the Office documentation or contact Microsoft.
For instructions on how to remove the protection, see the Word documentation or contact Microsoft.
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 (refer applicable link below). Then try again to convert a document to a PDF using PDFMaker. If the problem does not recur, contact the manufacturer of that macro.
The steps below are based on the Microsoft knowledgebase articles:
For more detailed information on troubleshooting Microsoft Word, visit the Microsoft website and search for a relevant article.
The /a switch starts Word and prevents add-ins and global templates (including the Normal template) from being loaded automatically. The /a switch also locks the setting files; that is, the setting files cannot be read or modified if you use this switch.
Note: Changes to preferences, customizations, or macros during an /a switch session of Word are lost when you quit Word.
To start Word by using the /a switch:
To load PDFMaker manually (Acrobat 6.x only):
Load PDFMaker manually (MS Word 2007 and 2010):
Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word options.
Click Add-ins.
In the Manage list, click COM Add-ins, and then click Go.
If the Acrobat PDFMaker COM add-in is listed and selected in the COM Add-Ins dialog box, do the following. Otherwise, go to step 6.
Click to deselect the Acrobat PDFMaker COM add-in checkbox.
Click OK to close the COM Add-Ins dialog box.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 and then click to select/check the Acrobat PDFMaker COM add-in checkbox, in the COM Add-Ins dialog box.
Verify that the Acrobat tab appears in the MS Word Ribbon.
If Acrobat PDFMaker COM add-in is NOT listed in the COM Add-Ins dialog box, then follow steps 7 through 10 in the To load PDFMaker manually (MS Word 2003 or earlier) section.
Create a test Word document and start PDFMaker:
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:
Note: Refer the following Microsoft Product Support Services for additional Word startup troubleshooting:
For instructions on how to rename the global template file, see the section "Global Template (Normal.dotm or Normal.dot)" in the Microsoft Support article, How to reset user options and registry settings in Word. Scroll down the page to get to the article.
Important: Do not use /a switch to restart Word after you complete the steps.
If you resolve the issue when you rename the global template, then the issue is a damaged Normal.dot template. It's sometimes necessary to change several settings to restore your options. If the Normal.dot file 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:
In the Office Assistant or the Answer wizard, type Organizer.
If you do not resolve the issue, consider using 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, contact Acrobat Support.
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