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g_g_9876
Participant
May 11, 2018
Question

Acrobat preferences to convert Excel to PDF/A (limited PDF/A version list)

  • May 11, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 613 views

I have Acrobat 2017 Pro and want to convert Excel files to PDF/A. When I use the PDFMaker in Excel I can select PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2 or PDF/A-3 (a or b version) in Preferences, under 'PDF/A Compliance'. I want to convert multiple files at once, so I want to set Preferences in Acrobat to convert Excel to PDF, but I can only see PDF/A-1b, under 'Compliance Standard' (in the Standards panel, after clicking the Edit button next to the 'Adobe PDF Settings' list). Why aren't the other versions listed? Thanks in advance for your help.

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1 reply

C
Cari Jansen
Legend
May 15, 2018

If you set the Preferences from within the Acrobat ribbon, and create a PDF once from one Excel file, you should be able to apply the same settings to other Excel files you convert, as those settings are 'sticky' as far as I'm aware (until you change them again).

  1. Start by opening an Excel file, and adjust the Preferences in the Acrobat Ribbon, then click Create PDF, and test that the PDF is as you need it to be.
  2. Leave the excel file open. (I'm not sure if this step is required, but it's what I normally do when I do bulk custom conversions for Word documents).
  3. In Acrobat choose File > Create > Multiple PDF files
  4. Add the remaining Excel files to convert
  5. Click OK.
G
g_g_9876Author
Participant
May 15, 2018

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I opened an Excel file and adjusted the Preferences to PDF/A-1a, created the PDF and verified with Preflight that it complied with that standard. With Excel open, I created 2 more PDFs with Acrobat, as you said in steps 2 to 5. These two complied with PDF/A-1b (the only option in Acrobat Preferences for Excel), but not with PDF/A-1a.  The Preferences in Excel didn't have any effect on the Preferences in Acrobat.  I also tried closing Excel after creating the first PDF, with no luck.

The problem seems to be that I can only see PDF/A-1b in Preferences for Excel in Acrobat. Can you see higher versions of PDF/A in your Acrobat Preferences?

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