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K
kgbf
Known Participant
October 21, 2020
Question

Bamboozled by extra spacing (Word to PDF conversion)

  • October 21, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 2913 views

Hey all,

 

I've been perplexed for several days now by an issue I'm having when converting a business letter in Word to PDF. 

 

Here's a screenshot in Word 2016 of the bottom of my main text box and signatures (PNG files) below.

 

 

Here's what it looks like when I convert to PDF.

 

 

Do you see how there's an extra space between 'With gratitude' and the bottom of the text box? (I left the text box borders on so it would be easier to troubleshoot). Why is this happening? Is there something I can fix in Word so it doesn't add that space when I convert it to PDF?

 

This is a rather urgent work project, so thank you in advance for any insight you might have! The Word version of this will be a template for other colleagues to work with, so fixing it on the front end is important to me.

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
October 22, 2020

Maybe if you posted a sample Word document exhibiting this problem when creating PDF via Acrobat's PDFMaker, we could really be able to assist you.

 

For the record, using Word's Save as and specifying PDF as the file type is not the same as using Acrobat PDFMaker's Save as Adobe PDF, although they use the same internal formatter which in fact is part of Word itself (produces EMF stream in which spacing, line breaks, etc. are already “baked in”).

 

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
K
kgbfAuthor
Known Participant
October 23, 2020

Sure! I posted screenshots above because they're internal documents. But I would be happy to share samples via Dropbox and/or private message if helpful.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
October 21, 2020

I suspect the text box is the same size, and the text has reflowed in the normal way that Word does.  Examine the flow of the text, but basically this is just what Word does.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
October 21, 2020

And of course your Word template will change according to whatever printer the end user has connected to the computer where it runs Word. As a Word designer of templates, you need to allow for this.

K
kgbfAuthor
Known Participant
October 21, 2020

I am converting from Word to PDF, not the other way around...

K
kgbfAuthor
Known Participant
October 21, 2020

Also, I tried converting it on a different computer with Adobe Acrobat Pro 2015, and I didn't have the same problem. On my computer, I have Adobe Acrobat Pro Continuous Release (last updated in 2020). Do you think that might be the problem? If so, I'm not sure what to do as our entire organization has the 2020 version...

K
kgbfAuthor
Known Participant
October 21, 2020

Hey all, I've determined it's my version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC that's causing the spacing issue. The same exact thing happens on one colleague's computer who shares the Creative Cloud app with me, but another colleague doesn't have Acrobat and just uses "Save As PDF" in Word, and she doesn't end up with the extra space. As mentioned earlier, I also tried this on another computer with Acrobat 2015 and it also didn't add the extra space.

 

Does anyone know how to disconnect Acrobat from Word? Even when I choose "Save" --> "Save as PDF" in Word, it reverts to an Acrobat PDF. Can I turn that off somehow? Thanks in advance!

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
October 21, 2020

No, that isn't what is happening. It's an "Acrobat PDF" because your computer has an Acrobat PDF icon. All PDF files get the icon. Acrobat has nothing AT ALL to do with PDFs made with Save as PDF. Your differences from machine to machine are probably from installed printers or fonts.

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