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A
Anonymous
November 28, 2011
Answered

Images lost in converting Word 2007 file to PDF

  • November 28, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 31893 views

I have a Word 2007 document (docx), with inserted JPGs.  If the text wrapping of the images is set to anything but "in line with text", the images do not appear in the PDF file created from the docx.  I have tried many different combinations of Acrobat preferences (image compression on or off; standard vs. high quality print; different DPI settings; etc.).  This appears to be a new problem, as I have converted many Word docx's with images to PDFs in the past.  A document that I converted to PDF a year ago no longer converts properly!   I'm running Windows 7 Pro and using Acrobat Pro X.   Office 2007 has SP3 (and I suspect that's the problem).  Has anyone else had the problem, and, if so, found a fix?

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Correct answer

Hi, Bill,

     I have the doc/docx converter, though I haven't tested if if gives any different result from letting Word 2003 simply open the docx.   I'm on travel now and can't test this until later.

     The doc file looks perfect in Word 2007 on my Win 7 machine.

      Printing to Adobe PDF gives the same problem - no images.

     Re positioning with reflow:   I'm not sure exactly where you find options termed 'reflow,' but I tried 3 options in Compatibility and Layout (Word options --> Advance --> Compatibility options): 

  • In the menu of Compatibility options: "Lay out this documents as if created in Microsoft Word 2003"
  • In the sub-menu Layout options: "Use Word 2003 indent rules for text next to wrapped objects"
  • In Layout options: I turned off the indent rules and chose "Use printer metrics to lay out document" (and I used this with "Create PDF" inside Word 2007 and with print to Adobe PDF)

In all 3 (or, really, 4) cases, the images were lost.  Please let me know if any of these options comprise the reflow options.  Please note also that I'm not trying to print the document, as I think you realize; I want to create email-able PDFs that have positioned images, as I have always been able to do in the past. 

If there's not much more to tweak here, I may bit the bullet and do a system restore to pre-SP3 update on Office 2007.   Tedious, but no more tedious than all the things I've tried so far.

     Thanks,  Vince


Hi, Bill,

     I solved the problem, which had misleading features.  Somehow, in Word Options --> Display, Print drawings created in Word got checked off.  Now the pictures come out fine.   The misleading part is that images inserted from files would be incorporated into the PDF if they were text-wrapped as inline!

    Thanks for your time

1 reply

B
Bill12
Inspiring
November 28, 2011

What version of AA X are you using. That might also be the problem.

A
Anonymous
November 28, 2011

Hi, Bill,

      It's AA Pro X.

      If found a workaround this morning that will only work as long as my XP is still running.  I converted the docx to doc, took it to another PC running XP /  AA Pro 7.0 / Word 2003.  The conversion worked fine.   So, the problem is somewhere in the match between Word 2007 and AA Pro X.  I haven't tried a system restore to last week, before SP3 was installed for Office 2007.

      Side note that has a small chance of being relevant.   On the older PC, I had to redo all the figure positioning in Word, even though the view of the doc (vs. docx) version in Word 2007 was fine.  Word fought me every inch of the way, as it does on positioning images in any version; it kept changing my absolute positioning until I did the positioning twice.  It may be that the encoding of image positioning in Word 2007 (and with SP3) is no longer fully understood by AA Pro X, or even by Word 2003.

B
Bill12
Inspiring
November 29, 2011

I still don't have a solution, but some comments on your last post.

1) You might download the docx compatibility file for OFFICE 2003 and try that. It will load a docx file and convert it to doc on the fly. I don't expect any differences.

2) How does the doc file perform in OFFICE 2007?

3) If you used PDF Maker (create PDF) in WORD, then try printing to the Adobe PDF printer instead. Starting with AA9, the two processes are different.

4) The positioning issue is the reflow option that is the default in OFFICE 2003 and most word processors. In WORD 2007, MS turned the option off by default. The option I am referring to is buried down in a list of prior compatibility listings and refers to the use of printer metrics. The default for most word processors is to reflow a document when a different printer is attached to optimize the printer performance. This is one of the major differences between word processors and layout programs like InDesign. I am sure there are lots of other differences, but this is one that a lot of uses of word processors are not aware of. I often get WORD forms that don't work right because of the printer I have installed versus the one the form author had installed. Typically, I lose the bottom of the page or such due to this reflow issue.

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