Skip to main content
S
ScwB00
Participant
August 13, 2020
Answered

Stop PDFMaker for Office from Closing Files When Saving as PDF

  • August 13, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1497 views

Seriously, it's 2020 now and the PDFMaker plugin still requires files to be saved, closed and re-opened when you make a PDF in Excel, Word, etc. Other PDF-saving methods do not require this, they simply "print" a PDF like any rational plugin would do. Saving, closing and re-opening files becomes painful when you're dealing with large, slow files, especially if you are using a remote/VPN connection to files. Please re-write the PDFMaker plugin to take the more sensible approach.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer swapnilsrivastava
 
 

Hi There,

 

Thanks for reporting the issue here.

MS Excel and other MS apps have a PDFMaker plugin with Acrobat installed which creates PDF as per the Adobe Acrobat quiality not prints; so they file needs to be saved before converting to PDF. 
Also, if one does not want to save the file, can use Adobe PDF Printer; which we provide with every Acrobat's installation on the machine(s).

Open the Excel file > Click on Print Button (or Ctrl+P) > Select Adobe PDF Printer from dropdown > Select a location and Print

 

 

Regards,

Swapnil Srivastava

2 replies

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
August 14, 2020

Just to clarify some of the details...

 

There are many different types of PDFs made for specific purposes and based on international standards (file requirements). Some are:

  • PDF/A = archival material
  • PDF/E = engineering
  • PDF/X = press quality for the printing & graphic arts industry
  • PDF/UA   = universal access for accessible files
  • And several more.

Most non-Adobe PDF-making programs don't create PDFs to these standards.

 

Printing to a virtual PDF printer, whether Adobe's or other PDF company's, is the lowest level of PDF possible; it just records the same data that would be sent to a desktop laser or inkjet printer. Usually that means low-quality graphics and dead, non-editable text.

 

Sometimes that's all you need, other times it doesn't. When you need a better quality PDF, always use one of these methods:

  1. A PDF plug-in, such as Adobe's PDF Maker
  2. File / Save As and select any of the PDF options installed on your computer.
  3. File / Export and select any of the PDF options.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
S
ScwB00Author
Participant
August 14, 2020

Thanks for the information, however I still do not understand why Adobe PDFMaker forces the underlying Excel file to close and re-open. Sure, save it if necessary, but why force it to close? The other options listed (File / Save As with another PDF option, and File / Export) do not require this. Despite everything mentioned above, I still cannot see why the file must be closed. That seems like poor programming design to me.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
August 14, 2020

That part is wierd!

But I've never had Excel require closing the file when I export a PDF.

Log this as a bug in the UserVoice website, https://acrobat.uservoice.com/ so that Adobe's engineers can look into it.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
swapnilsrivastava
swapnilsrivastavaCorrect answer
Participating Frequently
August 14, 2020
 
 

Hi There,

 

Thanks for reporting the issue here.

MS Excel and other MS apps have a PDFMaker plugin with Acrobat installed which creates PDF as per the Adobe Acrobat quiality not prints; so they file needs to be saved before converting to PDF. 
Also, if one does not want to save the file, can use Adobe PDF Printer; which we provide with every Acrobat's installation on the machine(s).

Open the Excel file > Click on Print Button (or Ctrl+P) > Select Adobe PDF Printer from dropdown > Select a location and Print

 

 

Regards,

Swapnil Srivastava

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices