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_Nozza_C_
Participant
March 26, 2009
Question

Convert to PDF problem - spooler/direct printer settings

  • March 26, 2009
  • 5 replies
  • 31203 views
When I try to create a PDF from say a Word doc I get the following error message:

"Invalid Adobe PDF printer properties: Do no change spooler settings.
Please select Print directly to the printer option (from Adobe PDF printer properties Advanced tab)"

I can change the settings to print directly and it works. But the next time I log on to do it, the settings have gone back to how they were. This would't be a big problem for me personally but other less technical users have problems doing this.

Any ideas how I can make this change permanent or remove the error entirely?

Thanks
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    5 replies

    michelsmith
    michelsmith
    Participating Frequently
    July 4, 2011

    Hi,

    Go to Start / Run and type in "services.msc" without quotation marks, then press Enter or click OK.

    In the window that opens (Services) look for "Print Spooler" on the right

    Right-click "Print Spooler" and select "Properties".

    Click on the "Recovery" tab and change all 3 drop-down boxes to "Restart The Service".

    Make sure the 2 text boxes underneath say "1" in them.

    Click Ok until you are back at the Services window, close it and you're good to go.

    Go back into the properties of the "Print Spooler" tab and be sure to click Start to restart the Print Spooler service and it will restart the service immediately.

    The Print spooler depends on the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service. Is this service disabled? Go to services.msc look for RPC. Check state: Automatic

    Get more help to fix Printer Spooler Error :

    http://printers.iyogi.com/errors/printer-spooler-error.html

    Hope this helps you.

    M
    Milas_Agig
    Participant
    June 8, 2011

    Able to fix by the spooling method & unclicking "eable advanced printing features"

    - thanks;

    what I would like to know is WHY did the issue occur in the 1st place;

    W7 newish Laptop, with MS2003 package and Adobe Standard v8 is on the system; I regularly use print PDF from Explorer or a scanned imaged (large JPG); easier to send as  PDF file; have been doing this for years and suddenly this error occurs; initally tried to restore system to an earlier version, downloaded latest version W7 Service packs etc - nothing worked until I saw your advice on the matter.

    Thanks again

    M
    Milas_Agig
    Participant
    June 8, 2011

    By the way; as I said, the fix worked but created a new issues:

    1: after creation of the PDF file, will not delete the file from the print file queue list - status will randomly indicate "error printing"

    2: does not request for a file name prior to PDF creation despite clicking the approproate boxes for this option

    any advice?

    T
    traveler31m
    Participant
    July 10, 2009

    If you get this:

    Invalid "Adobe PDF" printer properties

    Do not change spooler settings.

    Please select "print directly to the printer" option (from Adobe PDF printer properties "advanced" tab)

    Try this:

    Find the Acrobat printer in Printers.
    Right click on it and select Properties then the Advanced Tab.
    For me, "Spool print documents..." was selected.

    The Fix:  Deselect "Enable advanced printing features".

    Click OK.

    A
    AcaCandy
    Participant
    February 26, 2010

    Just wanted to say that this worked for me on a system I was working on.

    _
    _Nozza_
    Participant
    March 30, 2009
    I need to change the print settings to avoid that error. The default spooler settings cause the error.

    I'm not manually printing to PDF but rather using the "Convert to PDF" function that installing Acrobat added to my Word toolbar. I assume this is the PDFMaker plugin. This converts to PDF by printing to a virtual PDF printer. AFAIK this is the way all PDF conversion is done.

    Anyway, I have solved the problem now by changing the port that the PDF printer uses to the MyDocs/PDF one rather than the default COM1 port it had selected on installation. Now it doesn't care about the spooling settings.
    A
    Anonymous
    March 27, 2009
    Hi Nozza, you didn't mention what the settings revert back to. I am guessing from the context of your post that you are trying to spool the document. I don't think Acrobat ever let you spool documents.

    You would get better results overall if you did not print Word docs to PDf but instead converted them using the PDFMaker plug-in for Word. It offers much better control and more features.

    You didn't say which version of Word or Acrobat that you are using but the plug-in is available for most MS Office products, the print to pdf is most commonly used for applications that do not have conversion options.

    Why do you need to change the print settings? What issues are you trying to avoid or experiencing? There may be a better solution if there is more information provided.
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