Acrobat DC not working with MS Word files after Nov 2021 update PC

Question

I need a high quality PDF made (it's a book) and the COM addin is my go-to. It's not working after the Nov 2021 Microsoft update for PC, and Acrobat itself isn't working to convert MS Word docs to pdf either. 😭
What I've tried:
1. Uninstalled/reinstalled Office and Acrobat. Worked with Microsoft tech support and Adobe tech support, still no luck. Adobe confirmed that others had the same problem.
2. I tried pulling the files into Acrobat itself for conversion (bypassing the addin). It is as if Acrobat forgot that it works with Word docx files, not even recognizing them. I can do a "save as" to pdf from Word but the resolution isn't the best since it's not Acrobat.
2. I can use the online Acrobat version to convert Word files, but I have some custom fonts that are not available in Creative cloud. I tried embedding the specialized fonts in the docx but the online Acrobat PDF maker still isn't recognizing them. I'm also concerned about the reolution of the online Acrobat converter - I haven't figured out how to boost the pdf quality of the online Acrobat generator to the highest quality (for images).
Any other options would be greatly appreciated! My other machine also already had the updates applied {sigh}.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Answer

The problems with the September update to Acrobat and its matching PDF Maker plug-in for Office have been thoroughly discussed in this forum. The bugs affected many items in the export-to-PDF workflow.

Take a look at this threads:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/table-headers-fail-in-accessibility-checker-after-september-14-2021-update/m-p/12498051/page/3#M336526

If you're making a PDF for print purposes, the built-in MS utility (File / Save As / PDF) should give sufficient quality for most printing technologies (digital and offset). Be sure to check the option to Optimize For: Standard (publishingonline and printing).

If that's still not giving you the quality you want, then I have to ask why are you laying out a book from Word? Word itself is extrermely limited and up until a few years ago, was not workable for professional printing.

Why not use Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher, or QuarkXpress? You'll get your quality controls in those programs.

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