Acrobat is introducing errors not present in Word file on Mac during output

[Fenbeast]

I am outputting a 165-page report created in MS Word for Mac (Version 16.88 (24081116)) using Acrobat Pro (Version 2024.002.21005) on an iMac Retina 5K 27-in 2020 running macOS 14.6.1. For the most part, the output looks good—hyperlinks work, images render correctly, and so forth—but there are random errors that I cannot account for in the Word document. These are:

• One header is not rendering correctly (it looks fine in the Word file) and I cannot manually correct it because it's 13 point and Acrobat keeps recasting it as either 14 or 12 point.

• One cross-reference refuses to render with a link, even though the link is present i the Word file.

• All linked Figure and Table callouts (inserted using Word's cross-reference function) were colored blue in Word, but a great of these callouts aren't rendering in blue type in the PDF—some aren't rendering in blue at all, others will render the word "Figure" or "Table" in blue but the number is in black. The links from callout to figure/table in all cases do work as intended regardless of what color the text is.

• There are a few odd text breaks and hiccups of unknown origins—including addition of text not in the Word file in the footnotes for two tables, persist despite my efforts to omit them. The text was in an earlier version of the Word file but was deleted (and the deletion was accepted). All of these can be fixed manually in the PDF without affecting the pagination of the report, but if I can figure out why Acrobat insists on putting material into the table notes that isn't there (or may be present but not visible in the Word file), I would prefer to not have to make manual edits.

Let me note that I have output this file multiple times after making tweaks to elements that aren't rendering correctly. I've fixed most problems but this set of issues has me stumped. I'm not sure what to do about problems that show as wanted in Word but consistently change in Acrobat. Any advice you have to offer would be appreciated.

[Fenbeast · Accepted solution]

I did resolve the incorrectly rendering header. It was a case of the styles of the header and the subsequent figure callout in the first paragraph overlapping. Once I separated the two and cleared and reapplied styles, it was fine. So that's one down.