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Doriguzzi
Doriguzzi
Participant
July 26, 2020
Question

Acrobat to Word problem

  • July 26, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 6698 views

I have read that this can be done BUT ...

 

I have an ID book of 140 pages and need to translate in to Word. I export it as a PDF and close ID. I then open it in Acrobat and go to export it as a Word document. Unfortunately it fails everytime.

 

I get the message "The specified file could not be written to. It may be in use."

 

I have closed everything else on my MAC. Thoughts????

 

NOTE: The document is totally text.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    N
    nth123
    Participant
    September 6, 2021

    I am having the same issue but running VBA Excel procedure. A manual process to export file to Word Document does not raise any error. Smooth.

     

    A few days  ago this does not happen. Might it be related to security setting somehow?

    N
    nth123
    Participant
    September 7, 2021

    A couple of steps will eventually solve the issue for anyone interested :

    1/ Make sure that Thumbnail Preview is disabled in Acrobat (https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/enable-pdf-thumbnail-preview-windows-explorer.html)

    2/ Make sure that in your Window Explorer, thumbnail preview is also disabled (https://kb.foxitsoftware.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046399271-How-to-disable-the-PDF-thumbnail-preview-in-windows-explorer-)

    3/ Enable trusted location for Acrobat (Edit>Preferences> Security (Enhanced))

    4/ Enable trusted location for Excel application.

    A
    Aadu259123509slp
    Participant
    September 1, 2022

    Hi, this did not work. The code runs on my machine but on my client's machine its giving the error of file may be in use. I triedd this on another computer with acrobat pro DC and it works fine. Any idea what else could cause this ?

      Nancy OShea
      Community Expert
      Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 26, 2020

      See this article.

      https://redokun.com/blog/indesign-to-word

       

      If you got this error, “The specified file could not be written to. It may be in use”, try to save the exported file in a different folder. That generally solves the issue.  If you have any other error, try saving the file in a different folder with the Word 97 - 2003 Document format.

       

      Also don't expect 100% perfect results.  Keep your InDesign layout simple and the resulting MS Word document should need only a little re-working.

       

      Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Legend
      July 26, 2020

      Quote: ""I get the message "The specified file could not be written to. It may be in use."

       

      It means that your computer system says that the file is in use by a program on your computer, so it can't override it. Suggestions:

      • Try giving the new export-to-word file a new name.
      • Restart your computer (to flush out any memory), open the PDF, and export it to Word.

       

      Question: SInce you're starting with an InDesign file, why not export to Word directly from InDesign? By pass Acrobat and PDF entirely.

       

       

       

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