Adobe Acrobat Mail Merge Function Missing

Question

Hello folks

One of our departments had bought the Acrobat Adobe licence so they could use a feature called mail merge in Word. This allowed them to convert multiple documents to PDF’s then email them out in bulk. Since the Win11 upgrade, they no longer see the Adobe add-in in Word, but instead see something called ‘Document Cloud’ in the ribbon, which simply lets you convert one document into a PDF.
Has anyone found a way to get the Adobe mail merge option back?
We’ve tried disabling and reenabling the add-in, but only the Document Cloud which looks like the replacement for the old add-in disappears and reappears.
We’ve ensued Adobe itself is open and the customers are signed in.
Any advice?

Thank you!
Kat

Anand Sri Bhattacharya · Accepted Answer

Hello @KatBaylie,I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. Sorry for the trouble you had.Could you please share more details about the issue? Are you using Acrobat Pro (desktop) or Acrobat Reader/web tools?Was the previous workflow using Word Mail Merge + “Adobe PDF” (PDFMaker add-in) or a different tool?Is this happening for all users or just specific machines after the Windows 11 upgrade?Reasons: The PDFMaker COM add-in got disabled or unloaded during the upgrade or an Office update.The Office/Word version was updated to something newer than the installed Acrobat supports, so PDFMaker stopped loading until Acrobat is updated.Word is running in a mode where the classic COM add-in does not load.Suggestions:Re-enable the COM add-in. In Word: File > Options > Add-ins. At the bottom, set "Manage" to COM Add-ins and click Go. Tick "Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin" and click OK. If it is not listed, continue to the next steps.Check Disabled Items in the same place. Set "Manage" to Disabled Items and click Go. Word sometimes disables an add-in that loads slowly or crashes. If Acrobat PDFMaker is listed, select it and choose Enable, then restart Word.Update Acrobat to the latest version. Since this started with the Win11 upgrade, the installed Acrobat may predate the current Office/Windows build. In Acrobat: Menu > Help > Check for Updates, install, and restart. This re-establishes PDFMaker compatibility with the updated Office.If the tab still does not appear, repair Acrobat. Close Office apps, then in Acrobat: Menu > Help > Repair Installation. This re-registers PDFMaker with Word.Ensure that the Office is updated to the latest available version.Please note that if it is a complete Enterprise setup, and the apps were deployed by the IT team with any deployment software:These users need Acrobat Pro or Standard (not the free Reader) for PDFMaker, and Acrobat should be installed and activated on the machine.If the Win11 image or an Office update rolled out fleet-wide, you may see this across many machines, so it is worth handling the fix (updated Acrobat build plus the COM add-in enabled) in your deployment rather than per user.If Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin does not appear under either COM Add-ins or Disabled Items, please share:Acrobat version | Menu > Help > About Adobe AcrobatWord / Microsoft 365 version and buildWhether Acrobat Pro or Standard desktop is installedWhether this affects all Windows 11 machines or only upgraded machinesLogs from the affected machine: https://adobe.ly/4f9dXZhLet us know how it goes, and please reach out with your findings and if you need any assistance.Regards,Anand Sri.

KatBaylie · Answer

Hello Anand!Thank you for the advice, I’m waiting to hear back from the customers to confirm if it’s Adobe Pro or standard they have installed.As I mentioned in the query, we’ve tried disabling and reenabling the add-in, but only the Document Cloud which looks like the replacement for the old add-in disappears and reappears. The add-in was called PDFMaker. In the screenshot it appears with a red icon called Document cloud rather than Adobe being inserted into the ribbon with multiple options like before, hence why we thought Adobe did an update to their add-in.As you suggested, it might be that Adobe isn’t up to date, so I’ll pass that on as well.I can confirm they have Office 365, and as far as I am aware, this has only happened to this department, but they are the only folks I know that have purchased Adobe for just this function. But rolling out the update it that does end up being the fix is a good shout if the numbers start building!I’m glad that the response is that the mail merge function has not been removed from Adobe, so we can keep looking for a fix rather than looking for new software!I’ll let you know what happensAll the bestKat

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